
Glass V r\G4 4 

Book X;Q> O^ 




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* 

• STUDIES IN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE NUMBER 1 



AN INQUIRY INTO THE COMPOSITION AND 
STRUCTURE OF LUDUS COVENTRIAE 

BY 

ESTHER L. SWENSON, M.A. 
Sometime Assistant in English in the University of Minnesota 

X 

; • WITH A NOTE ON THE 

^- ♦ HOME OF LUDUS COVENTRIAE 



1^* 



BY 

HARDIN CRAIG, Ph.D. 

Professor of English in the University of Minnesota 




MINNEAPOLIS 

Bulletin of the University of Minnesota 

October 1914 

IwiDgnph 



RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS 

OF THE 

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA 

These publications contain the results of research work from various de- 
partments of the University and are offered for exchange with universities, 
scientific societies, and other institutions. Papers will be published as sep- 
arate monographs numbered in several series. There is no stated interval 
of publication. Application for any of these publications should be made to 
the University Librarian. 

STUDIES IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES 
(Continuing Studies in Economics) 

1. Thompson and Warber, A Social and Economic Survey of a Rural 
Township in Southern Minnesota, April, 1913. 

2. Matthias Nordberg Orfield, Federal Land Grants to the States, 
with Special Reference to Minnesota. In press. 

3. Edward Van Dyke Robinson, Early Economic Conditions and the 
Development of Agriculture in Minnesota. In press. 

STUDIES IN THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS 
(Continuing Studies in Chemistry) 

1. Frankforter and Frary, Equilibria in Systems Containing Alcohol, 
Salts, and Water. December, 1912. 

2. Frankforter and Kritchevsky, A New Phase of Catalysis. Feb- 
ruary, 1914. 

STUDIES IN THE BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES 
(Continuing Studies in Public Health) 

1. Herbert G. Lampson, A Study on the Spread of Tuberculosis 
in Families. December, 1913. 

STUDIES IN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 
1. Esther L, Swenson, An Inquiry into the Composition and Struc- 
ture of Ludus Coventriae; Hardin Craig, Note on the home of Ludus 
Coventriae. October, 1914. 

CURRENT PROBLEMS 

1. William Anderson, The Work of Public Service Commissions. 

November, 1913. 

2. Benjamin F. Pittenger, Rural Teachers' Training Departments in 

Minnesota High Schools. October, 1914. 

3. Gerhard A. Gesell, Minnesota Public Utility Rates. October, 1914. 



Sllf? Ilmwrattg of ilintt^fiota 

STUDIES IN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE NUMBER 1 

AN INQUIRY INTO THE COMPOSITION AND 
STRUCTURE OF LUDUS COVENTRIAE 

BY 
ESTHER L. SWENSON, M.A. 

Sometime Assistant in English in the University of Minnesota 

WITH A NOTE ON THE 
HOME OE LUDUS COVENTRIAE 

BY 

HARDIN CRAIG, Ph.D. 

Professor of EngHsh in the University of Minnesota 




MINNEAPOLIS 

Bulletin of the University of Minnesota 

October 1914 



(^trja^ 



Copyright 1914 

The University of Minnesota 



f). OF d. 







PREFACE 

During the year which has elapsed since my preparation of the Note on 
the Home of Ludus Coventriae it has been possible for me to collect further 
information from Lincoln records with regard to the Lincoln plays. This 
I shall publish when opportunity offers. The paper printed here will, as 
it stands, have value as a statement of the problem of the location of Ludus 
Coventriae and as an explanation of the issues involved, so far as they are 
capable of explanation in the light of the materials already available in 
print. Another matter connected with this publication which demands 
some explanation is that Miss Swenson's Inquiry into the Composition and 
Structure of Ludus Coventriae was already out of her hands when Miss 
M. H. Dodds' paper, entitled The Problem of Ludus Coventriae, appeared 
in the January number of the Modern Language Review. Miss Swenson 
did not, therefore, have opportunity, in the preparation of her thesis, to 
consult Miss Dodds' article. I have made it the subject of a few com- 
ments at the end of my Note on pages 81-83 below. 

Hardin Craig. 
October 1, 1914. 



AN INQUIRY INTO THE COMPOSITION AND 
STRUCTURE OF LUDUS COVENTRIAE 

INTRODUCTION 

The question of the locality to which the so-called Ludus Coventriae 
ought to be assigned has long been debated. In the year 1841 Halliwell 
edited the plays for the Shakespeare Society under the following title : 
"Ludus Coventriae : A Collection of Mysteries formerly represented at 
Coventry on the Feast of Corpus Christi." His principal authority for 
assigning the cycle to Coventry is a note written on the flyleaf of the manu- 
script by Dr. James, who was librarian to Sir Robert Cotton, the last private 
owner of the manuscript : "Contenta Novi Testamenti scenice expressa et 
actitata olim per monachos sive fratres mendicantes : vulgo dicitur hie liber 
Ludus Coventriae, sive Ludus Corporis Christi." Later Dugdale in his 
History of Warzvickshire, written in the middle of the seventeenth century, 
states, probably only on the authority of James, that these plays were pre- 
sented by the Grey Friars at Coventry. And so for a time scholars seem, to 
have taken it for granted that the cycle belonged to the town of Coventry. 

With the advent of modern critical methods, however, scholars have 
begun to inquire into the authority upon which James based his assertion, 
and have found that it rests on no reliable ground. It will be noted, first, 
that James does not state positively that these were Coventry plays, but 
simply that they were commonly so called ; and, secondly, that, in describing 
the cycle as made up of plays dealing with subjects from the New Testa- 
ment, James shows that he is unfamiliar with their contents. There were, 
however, craft-plays at Coventry that contained only New Testament 
material, and it seems possible that James confused them with the Ludus 
Coventriae. On the first page of the manuscript the plays are entitled simply, 
"The plaie called Corpus Christi," no mention being made of their location. 
The inscription is written in a later hand, probably early in the sixteenth 
century. 

Attention has often been called to the last four lines of the Prologue : 

A Sunday next, yf that we may, 

At vi of the belle we gynne oure play, 

In N. towne, wherfore we pray 

That God now be youre spede. Amen. 

They have been thought to indicate that the plays were performed by a 
company of strolling players, the 'N' of 'N. towne' standing for nomen. 

1 



2 ESTHER L. SM'ENSON 

Ten Brink and Pollard accept this interpretation and also point out that the 
dialect indicates a North-East Midland origin for the cycle.^ Mr. Hohlfeld 
suggests that the plays might originally have been presented by the Grey 
Friars at Coventry, and later, when the craft-plays of Coventry had robbed 
the Friars of their popularity, the cycle might have been taken over by a 
strolling company. - 

Mr. Chambers, on the other hand, does not consider it necessary to con- 
clude that the *N' of 'N. towne' indicates nomen and consequently a band 
of strolling players. He suggests that it may stand for Norwich or some 
other North-East Midland town beginning with 'N.'^ Mr. Gayley, being 
impressed with the large number of plays in the cycle dealing with the life 
of the Virgin, suggests Lincoln as their possible location ; for in the Lincoln 
craft-plays there was always ecclesiastical cooperation, and especial empha- 
sis was laid upon the legends of the Virgin.* Mr. Gayley also calls attention 
to the similarity of the Old Testament plays in the Ludus Coventriae to those 
in the Chester cycle and also to the Viel Testament and suggests that all three 
of the cycles spring from a common French source, located in time between 
the twelfth and fifteenth centuries.^ 

These proposals are, however, not in any case sufficiently substantiated 
and seem to be little more than guesses. The history of the manuscript is 
shrouded in mystery, and so far examination of town records and other 
external evidence has yielded no great positive results. It seems worth 
while to turn to an examination of the cycle itself, its language, composi- 
tion, style, etc., with the hope that an investigation of internal evidence may 
prove more successful. 

Mr. M. Kramer in his treatise called Sprache und Heimat des sogen. 
Ludiis Coventriae has made a study of the linguistic peculiarities of the cycle 
and arrives at the conclusion that there underlies the cycle, as it now stands, 
an older "kernel cycle." This basal cycle, he believes, originated in the 
southern part of England near the border between the South and the East 
Midlands, possibly in Wiltshire, but that the old original cycle has been 
further developed and revised in the North-East Midlands ; he thus partially 
supports Ten Brink's assertion. 

The composite nature of the cycle which seems to indicate that the play 
is made up of various parts of cycles, originally not connected, as here 
recognized by Kramer, has been pointed out by many other scholars. Crei- 
zenach and Ten Brink both call attention to Prolosoie material in the 



1 Ten Brink, History of English Literature, ii. p. 283; Pollard, English Miracle Plays, xxxvii. 

2 A. R. Hohlfeld, Die altenglischen Kollektivmisterien, in Anglia, xi. 
<* E. K. Chambers, The Mediaeval Stage, ii. p. 421. 

* C. M. Gayley, Plays of Our Forefathers, p. 136. 

'•Gayley, pp. 325, 326. For a further discussion of the sources of this cycle, cf. Falke, Die Quel- 
ten des sog. Ludus Coventriae. 



LUDUS COVENTRIAE 3 

Nativity and Passion groups of plays which marks off separate units.® 
And Collier expresses the opinion that Contemplacio was introduced 
after the first production.' Mr. Davidson in his Studies in the English Mys- 
tery Plays^ suggests that these materials, which sprang from various sources, 
were recast into cyclic form by one writer at a late date, probably early in 
the sixteenth century. The sixteenth century, however, is too late, since the 
manuscript is generally thought to have been written in the year 1468. 
Moreover, the metrical arrangement of the plays, as I hope to show later, 
does not indicate that the whole cycle has been rewritten at one time and by 
one hand. It may, however, be very possible that considerable portions of 
the cycle, such as the ecclesiastical parts of the Nativity plays, are the work 
of one author. Mr. Chambers^ cites a rumor that Lydgate of Bury was such 
an author ; and Mr. Hemingway in his English Nativity Plays^^ gives a num- 
ber of arguments in favor of such a conjecture. 

In the book mentioned above Mr. Hemingway has made a comparative 
study of the Nativity plays in the four cycles, together with an inquiry into 
their origin and sources. He has printed from Ludus Coventriae five plays, 
The Salutation, Joseph's Trouble about Mary, The Visit to Elizabeth, The 
Nativity [Joseph and the Midwives], and the play of the Shepherds. As a 
result of his study of these' plays, he finds that the ecclesiastical portions, 
notably the Dispute of the Four Daughters of God in the play of the Saluta- 
tion, were omitted from the Prologue ; and that the action of the plays would 
not be seriously affected if these parts were omitted. He concludes 
that the original plays did not contain the theological elements, but were like 
the other English plays and possibly written originally for trading com- 
panies.^^ It has occurred to me that a comparison of the general Prologue 
and the individual plays throughout the cycle might help to determine the 
structure and composition of the cycle. In connection with this comparison, 
I have also made a study of the manuscript, the metrical arrangement, and 
the stage-directions with a view to distinguishing between older and newer 
elements in the plays. 

The manuscript of Ludus Coventriae is found in the British Museum, 
Cotton MS. Vespasian D. viii. It is generally thought to have been written 
in the year 1468, since that date is written on the verso of fol. 100, and is 
apparently in the hand of the scribe. In addition to Dr. James's note, quoted 
above, the name of Robert Hegge. Dunelmensis, occurs at the beginning of 
the manuscript and is followed by the title, "The plaie called Corpus Christi," 
written in a later hand, which Mr. Hemingway asserts to be the hand of 



6 W. Creizenach, Geschichte des ncneren Dramas, i. 300; Ten Brink, i. pt. ii. 283. 



7 7. P. Collier, History of English Dramatic Poetry, ii. 160. 
8Dc ~' "" " """ 



)oct. Diss. Yale, 1892. 9 Chambers, The Mediaeval Stage, ii. 145. 

10 S. B. Hemingway, English Nativity Plays, xxxvii. 

11 Hemingway, English Nativity Plays, xxxii. 



4 ESTHER L. SWENSON 

Robert Hegg'e. Hegge has written his name in a number of places on the 
manuscript and other names also occur; written in the margins and on blank- 
pages, John Holland, John King, William Dere, and John Taylphott. The 
places where these names occur are indicated below in the discussion of the 
various plays. 

The absence of guild names or of clear divisions between plays in the 
manuscript has led scholars to suppose that the plays were not performed by 
craft-guilds. But the fact that numbers are written in the margins and else- 
where to mark off the various plays may indicate that at some time in the 
history of the cycle an attempt was made to divide the cycle up into separate 
plays and to hold various crafts responsible for each part. The numbering 
of these plays is in a hand contemporary with that of the scribe, and is done 
at the same time as the marginal paragraph marks and the large initial let- 
ters. The numbering and rubrications run straight through and include the 
Assumption play, although this is written in a different hand. Whether or 
not the numbering was done by the scribe who wrote the body of the manu- 
script, it is certainly true that the numbering must have been done on a later 
occasion, namely at the time of the incorporation of the Assumption play. 

In the following discussion I have adhered to the divisions as marked 
in the manuscript and not as they have been reproduced by Halliwell in his 
edition. Wherever there is any disagreement between Halliwell and the 
manuscript, and this occurs maiiily in the part of the cycle dealing with the 
Passion, I have found that the manuscript divisions correspond better with 
the Prologue than Halliwell's do. In the table of comparison between the 
Prologue and the plays I have indicated Halliwell's divisions in the right- 
hand margin with arable numerals in parentheses. 

A study of the metrical arrangement of the cycle reveals the fact that 
there are, belonging to the original cycle, five types of stanza that seem to be 
basic forms, as follows : ( 1 ) A thirteen-line stanza rhyming abababab- 
c d d d c. The first eight lines have generally four accented syllables, and 
the ninth and thirteenth lines vary from one to three. This type is used 
throughout the Prologue and the first part of the cycle. (2) A linked ballad 
stanza a a a b c c c b, of which lines one to three and five to seven are tetram- 
eter lines, and lines four and eight, trimeter lines. (3) The third type of 
stanza is the four-foot quatrain. In the first half of the cycle double quat- 
rains, a b a b b c b c, predominate, and in the second half the single quatrains 
seem to be preferred. (4) Couplets are used here and there in the latter 
part of the cycle, but never to any great extent. (5) The second part of the 
play of Joseph's Trouble about Mary and the Purification play employ a 
stanza that does not appear elsewhere in the c\cle, aabaabbcbc. The 
lines vary in length from three to four feet, but are generally four feet 
long. In addition to these five forms there is considerable use made of the 



LUDUS COVENTRIAE 5 

tumbling meter with various rhyming schemes, a form of verse which I 
beheve may be mainly the work of a redactor. The interweaving of these 
various stanzas is indicated in the discussion of the individual plays and also 
summarized in a table at the end.^- 

For convenience of treatment I have divided the cycle into four groups. 
It is not meant that these groups indicate anything very definite as to the 
structure of the cycle. 



i. Fall of Lucifer 
ii. Fall of Man 



Prologue 



GROUP I 

iii. Cain and Abel 
iv. Noah and the Flood 
Abraham's Sacrifice 

Plays 



Creation of heaven and 
the angels. 



The angels worship God. 
Rebellion and fall of 
Lucifer. 



The Fall of Lucifer 
(Including the first 82 lines of Halliwell's Creation) 

i. God makes an introductory speech, in which he speaks 
of himself as "alpha et co," one God in three 
persons, etc. 
In the 29th line of this speech he says, "Now wole I 
begynne my werke to make," and then goes on to 
tell how he creates heaven with the stars and the 
angels. 
The angels sing, "Tibi omnes Angeli." 
Lucifer rebels and is expelled from heaven by God. 
He laments, but says nothing of plans for revenge. 



(1) 



(Including the rest of 

ii. The other six days of 
creation. 
The creation of Adam 
and Eve, the garden, 
the command. 



The temptation and fall. 



Expulsion from garden, 
angel left to guard 
the gates. 



The Fall of Man 
Halliwell's Creation as well as his Fall of Man) 
ii. God goes on in his speech to describe the work of 
the other six days of creation. 

The creation of Adam and Eve on the sixth day. 
Thty are placed in paradise and given the com- 
mand concerning the tree of knowledge. 

God rests on the seventh day, blesses his work, goes 
to heaven. 

Adam and Eve express gratitude. 

The temptation and fall. 

God visits the garden, calls Adam, Eve, and the Ser- 
pent to account. The Serpent gives jealousy of 
man as a reason for his deed. 

Condemnation and expulsion, angels left to guard 
the gates. 

Adam and Eve lament. 



(2) 



12 Davidson, English Mystery Plays, and Hohlfeld, Anglia, xi, have treated the question of the 
meters of this cycle, but only incidentally. 



ESTHER L. S WEN SON 



Cain and Abel offer 
sacrifices. 

Cain slays Abel. 
God's curse upon Cain. 



Cain and Abel 

Cain and Abel ask Adam's advice as to the best mode 

of worship. 
They select the offering. Abel chooses his best 

sheep, Cain considers it foolish to give the best to 

God, who does not use it. Abel remonstrates, but 

to no purpose. 
The sacrifice. Abel's sacrifice burns, while Cain's 

does not. Abel explains this as betokening God's 

approval of his selection of the best. 
Cain slays Abel. 
God's curse upon Cain. Cain's lament. 



(3) 



God is angry with man. 

God sends an angel to 
command Noah to 
build an ark, etc. 



After forty days, Noah 
sends out a crow. 

Later a dove, that 
brought good tidings. 



Noah and the Flood 

. Noah and his family, in turn, pray for deliverance 
from sin. Noah announces himself the second 
progenitor of the human race. 

God resolves to destroy man. 

An angel delivers the command to Noah to build 
the Ark. Noah hesitates ; he is too old (five hun- 
dred years) to undertake such a task; but the 
angel reassures him. 

Noah and his family go to the sea. 

The Lamech episode. Blind Lamech, walking with 
a youth, boasts of his skill in archery. The youth 
sets a mark for him ; Lamech inadvertently slays 
Cain. In anger, he also kills the youth, and then 
goes to hide. 

Noah returns with his family ; they sing, lamenting 
the flood. 

When forty days have passed Noah sends out a 
crow. 

Later he sends out a dove, which returns carrying 
an olive leaf. 

They sing, "Mare vidit et fugit." 



(4) 



Abraham receives the 
command to sacrifice 
Isaac. 

Abraham is willing to 
do God's bidding, 

But is prevented by an 
angel. 



Abraham's Sacrifice 

Abraham praises God, exhorts his son to honor God. 
Abraham goes for a walk, and an angel meets him, 
gives him the command. 



Abraham takes Isaac with him and goes forth to 
the sacrifice. He tells Isaac of God's command. 
Isaac comforts his father. 

Angel prevents the slaying of Isaac. 

Angel promises that Abraham's seed shall be as the 

stars, etc. 
Abraham and Isaac worship. 



(5) 



LUDUS COVENTRIAE 7 

This group of plays contains none of the elaborations of the scripture 
story, such as the long dialogue between Abraham and Isaac at the time of 
the sacrifice ; nor any unscriptural humorous elements, such as the shrewish- 
ness of Noah's wife, which are found in the York, Towneley, and Chester 
cycles. Considered as a whole, these Old Testament plays are extremely 
simple, almost direct paraphrases of the Bible stories. It is probably for this 
reason that Mr. Gayley considers this part of the so-called Ludus Coventriae 
older than the other cycles.^^ With one notable exception there is in this 
part of the cycle a close correspondence between Prologue and plays. Such 
minor differences as, for instance, (1) Cain's grumbling at giving God the 
best of his fruits, (2) Noah's long prayer and his proclaiming himself the 
second father of mankind, (3) the Angel's promise to Abraham that his 
seed should be as the stars, are, I believe, simply elaborations of the themes 
given in the Prologue and therefore negligible. The first of these occurs 
in the Towneley play.^* The third or a similar promise occurs in the York 
and Chester plays. ^^ In none of these cycles is Noah spoken of directly as 
the second progenitor of the human race; this phrase has, to be sure, an 
ecclesiastical flavor like that found so prominently in the Nativity plays, but 
the touch is too slight to be of any significance. 

The Noah play contains in the story of Lamech a striking addition 
to the incidents provided for in the Prologue. If the play had, at the time 
of the writing of the Prologue, contained the Lamech episode, it is highly 
improbable that it would have entirely escaped mention in the Prologue. 
When Noah has received his commission from the Angel, we have the direc- 
tion : "Hie transit Noe cum familia sua pro navi, quo exeunte, locum inter- 
ludii subintret statim Lameth conductus ab adolescente, et dicens." Then 
follows the story of the death of Cain and after that this stage- 
direction: "Hie recedat Lameth et statim intrat Noe cum navi cantantes." 
The last part of this play, including the Lamech story, is written in a meter 
different from that of the rest of the group. From the beginning of the 
scene between Noah and the Angel to the end of the play a double quatrain 
in a tumbling measure is employed. This tumbling meter is a later form of 
verse and occurs elsewhere in the cycle only where the plays bear marked 
evidence of later reworking. It seems probable, therefore, that this episode 
was introduced into the cycle during the period of revision, and the adjoin- 
ing parts of the play rewritten to suit it and to suit stationary performances. 
In this connection it is significant that in the genealogies written in the 
earlier folios of the manuscript in larger, more ornamental script, we have 
after the name of Lamech, in the scribe's ordinary hand which he uses in 
writing the text, this note : "that slew Caym, this Caym had 2 wyf fys, etc." 

13 Gayley, Plays of Our Forefathers, p. 139. ^i The Towneley Mysteries, E. E. T. S., p. IS. 

15 The York Mysteries, p. 56; The Chester IVhitsun Plays, E. E. T. S., p. /o. 



8 ESTHER L. SWENSON 

Aside from the tumbling meter, the Old Testament plays present three 
regular forms of verse : (1) The prologue meter ababababcdddc, 
(2) ballad verse a a a b c c c b, (3) simple double quatrain ababbcbc. 
The prologue meter is undoubtedly the basal meter of this group and of 
much of the rest of the cycle. It begins with the Prologue and, with but one 
exception, where two simple quatrains are introduced (stanzas 15 and 16, 
describing the Trial of Joseph and Mary and Joseph and the Midwives) is 
maintained throughout the Prologue, the Fall of Lucifer, and the first part 
of the Fall of Alan, down to the scene where God visits the garden and 
reproves Adam, Eve. and the Serpent. It is noteworthy that this last- 
mentioned scene is in a different meter, namely, the ballad measure. The 
prologue meter is then again resumed and carried through the rest of this 
play, the whole of Cain and Abel, and the first part of the Noah play, when 
we have the introduction of the tumbling meter as noted before. Then with 
the Abraham and Isaac play we have the introduction of the simple double 
quatrain which is to be equally fundamental throughout the cycle. 

A study of the stage-directions and the appearance of the manuscript in 
this part of the cycle seems to indicate that these Old Testament plays were 
at the time of the writing of this manuscript regarded as a unit and possibly 
presented as one play. After the Cain and Abel play, instead of the direc- 
tion, "Hie incipit apparicio Noe," or something to that effect, we have the 
simple "Introitus Noe.'' This is written in the manuscript (folio 20b) oppo- 
site Cain's last speech : then a half page is left blank and the Noah play 
begins on the next page without any stage-direction. The direction, "In- 
troitus Abrahe," is written (folio 25b) after the Noah play in the same line 
with the direction, "Et hie recedant cum navi." The next play follows imme- 
diately without any break in the manuscript, the figure "5" being written in 
the margin. But at the end of the Abraham and Isaac play the word 
"Explicit" is written in unusually large letters and nearly a page and a half 
of the manuscript is left blank before the Moses play begins, which is 
introduced with an "Introitus Moyses." 

The manuscript in this section presents one or two other interesting fea- 
tures. On folio 10 in the play of the Fall of Lucifer appears the name "Rob- 
ert Hegge Dunelmensis," written across the top of the page. A genealogy 
from Adam to Noah begins on folio 16b and extends to folio 18, written, 
in the ornamental style noted before, across the bottom of the page. On 
folio 21, the page on which the Noah play begins, this genealogy is resumed 
and carried through from Noah to Loth, ending on folio 22b. There is on 
folio 24 a description of the ark as being three hundred cubits long, fifty in 
breadth and thirty high, and the flood as towering over the highest mountain. 

The stage-directions in this group of plays are simple and written entirely 
in Latin. 



LUDUS COVENTRIAE 



GROUP IT 



xiii. Mary's Visit to Elizabeth 
xiv. The Trial of Joseph and Mary 
XV. Joseph and the Midwives 
xvi. The Adoration of the Shepherds 
xviii. The Adoration of the Magi 
xi. The Salutation and Conception xix. The Purification 
xii. Joseph's Trouble about Mary xx. The vSlaughter of the Innocents 



vi. Moses and the Laws 

vii. The Prophets 

viii. The Barrenness of Anna 

ix. Mary in the Temple 

x. Mary's Betrothal 



Prologue 



Plays 



Moses receives the two 

tablets 
And preaches the ten 

commandments to all 

the people. 



Moses and the Laivs 

vi. The burning bush. Moses, praying, sees the bush. 
God commands him to remove his shoes, etc. 

God gives him the two tablets and orders him to 
preach to the people. 

The ten commandments, each followed by explan- 
ations and applications, are recited in order. 



(6) 



vii. The seventh pageant 
shall be of "Jesse 
rote," out of which 
doth spring our 
"bote." Kings and 
prophets shall proph- 
esy of a queen, who 
shall heal our strife 
and win us wealth 
without end, in heaven 
to abide. 

Her son shall save 
us by his wounds. 



The Prophets 

vii. Isaiah: A virgin shall conceive . . . 
Radix Jesse: A branch shall spring . . . 
David rex: Out of my blood . . . 
Jeremiah: God shall take lineage of priest and 

king. 
Solomon rex: Temple ... a figure of the maid. 
Ezeckiel: A gate that was sperd . . . 
Roboas rex: Of our kindred a maid . . . 
Micheas: Even as Eve mother of woe . . . 
Abias rex: All our mirth cometh of a maid . . . 
Daniel: I saw a tree; all the fiends of hell shall 

be afraid when that maiden's fruit therenn they 

see. 
Asa rex: God will be born of a maid and be torn 

on the cross. 
Jonas: On third day shall rise . . . 
Josophat rex believes all that has been said. 
Abdias: When he is risen, death shall be driven 

to damnation. 
Joras rex: After resurrection . . . shall return 

to heaven. 
Abacuche: He shall be judge in heaven. 
Osias rex: He shall send the spirit. 
Ezechias rex: A maid by meekness shall bring 

mercy. 



(7) 



10 ESTHER L. SIVENSON 



Sophosas: That maiden's birth our wealth shall 
dress. 

Manasses rex: The maid's child shall be prince 
of peace. 

Baruk: All his foes shall be punished on dooms- 
day. 

Amon rex: Lord grant us mercy on that dread- 
ful day. 

The Barrenness of Anna 

viii. Contemplacio's Prologue. Cryst conserve the con- (8) 
gregation, etc. This play is of the Mother of 
Mercy. 

1. How Anna and Joachim were her parents. 

2. Later she was offered to temple service. 

3. Married to Joseph. 

4. Salutation. 

5. The meeting with Elizabeth and therewith a 
conclusion. 

Therefore I pray you peace. 

Ysakar announces festiim Encenniorujn, celebrated 
three times a year, etc. ^ 

Joachim goes to the Temple. He introduces him- 
self as a righteous man, because he divides his 
property, giving one-third to the Temple, one- 
third to pilgrims, and one-third to those who live 
with him — as should every good curate. Anna 
and Joachim grieve and fear to go to the Temple 
because they have no child. Vow to consecrate 
their child, if one be given them, to the Temple 
service. Anna mentions the prophecy of the Vir- 
gin. Joachim goes, taking two turtle doves to 
offer as a sacrifice. 

Service in the Temple. "Benedicta sit beata trini- 
tas." Ysakar refuses Joachim's sacrifice, because 
he is childless ; service continues, with an Epis- 
copus. Minister, and Chorus. 

Joachim and Anna grieve over disgrace. Joachim 
goes to shepherds for comfort. Joachim and 
Anna pray. Angel comes to Joachim, sings, "Ex- 
ultet coelum laudibus," reminds him of Sarah, 
Rachel, and the mothers of Samson and Samuel, 
promises a child. Joachim and shepherds rejoice. 
Anna, grieving, goes to seek her husband and is 
comforted by the Angel. 

Angel goes to heaven while Anna and Joachim 
rejoice* 

Mary in the Temple 
ix. Contemplacio's Prologue (for this one play only). (9) 
We have seen the story of Joachim and Anna, 



LUDUS COVENTRIAE 



11 



how Our Lady was conceived. Now we show 
you how she was offered in the Temple. She 
shall appear as a child of three years, and remain 
there, ever according to God's will, up to her four- 
teenth year. 

Joachim and Anna bring Mary at three years of 
age to the Temple ; she gives her consent. 

They present her to Ysakar ; prayers and fare- 
wells, etc. 

Mary ascends fifteen steps of the Temple, reciting 
a psalm for each step. 

Episcopus gives her five maidens to wait upon 
her, Meditacion, Contryssyon, Compassyon, and 
Clennes. 

And seven priests to teach her, Dyscression, De- 
vocion, Dylexcion, and Deliberacion, Declaracion, 
Determynacion, Dyvynacion. 

Mary offers seven petitions. 

Angel ministers to her, gives her the significance of 
the five letters of her name. The earth quakes 
and an angel passes back and forth, bringing 
gifts. Chorus in heaven. Mary brings the bish- 
op's gift to her sisters. 

Contemplacio's Epilogue. Here you have seen the 
presentation of Our Lady. We pray you of your 
patience that we have passed these matters over 
so lightly. Now we shall proceed to "dissponsa- 
cion," which was fourteen years after this. The 
parliament of heaven and how God's son became 
man and the Salutation after shall be. 



y 



(Written over another 
figure.) Abyacar 

(Abiathar) commands 
that all maidens who 
are fourteen years of 
age be brought before 
him. 
Joachim and Anna 
bring forth Marv. 



Mary wishes to remain 
chaste. 

The bishop asks God 
for guidance and the 
Angel tells him to 
send for David's kin- 
dred and bid them 
present their rods. 



Mary's Betrothal 

X. ^'sakar issues the command that all maidens who 
are fourteen years of age be brought before him. 



Joachim and Anna prepare to obey the bishop's 
command. They bring Mary to the Temple, but 
there is no allusion throughout the play to her 
having lived in the Temple; 

Mary tells the story of her parents' vow and says 
that she wishes to live in chastity. 

Bishop prays for advice and is told to send for the 
sons of David and to bid them present their rods. 



10 



12 



ESTHER L. SWENSON 



/ 



(A new division also 
numbered 10.) A 
messenger is sent. 
The presentation of the 
wands. When Jo- 
seph offers his rod, it 
bursts into bloom. 



He pledges his wife to 
live in chastity. 

The bishop gives her 
three maidens that 
she may have some 
comfort. 



Gabriel salutes Our 
Lady. The three 
maidens hear voices 
but see no one. The 
angel says her son 
shall be called Jesus. 



The messengers go. Joseph grumbles but is finally 
persuaded to come to the Temple. 

The presentation of the rods. Joseph does not at 
first present his rod, but when he does so, it 
bursts into bloom. 

Upon being told that he is to wed Mary, he protests 
that he is too old, but is finally prevailed upon. 
He pledges her to live in chastity. 

Marriage ceremony performed by bishop. He gives 
Mary three maidens : Susanne, Rebecca, Sephore, 
each of whom in turn expresses her willingness 
to go. 

Mary bids her parents farewell. 

Joseph goes to prepare a home, bids Mary wait there 
and worship God. 

He returns and brings Mary to Nazareth, says he 
must leave her again and labor for their sus- 
tenance in a far country. 

Salutation and Conception 

xi. Contemplacio's Prologue. For four thousand six 
hundred and four years man has suffered for 
sin in hell. Now may God have mercy and re- 
member the prayer of Isaiah, etc. 

The Four Daughters of God. Virtutes : "Our ofifice 
is to present prayers. Mercy we cry, etc." They 
speak of the fall of Lucifer. Deus says he will 
prepare a way of salvation. The four daughters 
of God dispute. The Son comes forth and sug- 
gests that one who is guiltless must die as an 
atonement for man's sin. 

Council of the Trinity, in which the plans for man's 
salvation are made. 

God sends Gabriel to Mary. The Son says he is 
to be born of Mary. The Holy Ghost says that 
he will perform this miracle. 

Gabriel salutes Mary. Holy Ghost descends. They 
depart. 



(11) 



xii. (The word "hellenthe" 
crossed out.) Joseph 
returns. 



Joseph's Trouble about Mary. 

xii. Joseph returns, says he can not see Mary's face for (j2) 
the light that surrounds it. Mary explains that 
it is ordained by God that whoever beholds her 
shall be "grettly steryd to vertu." 



LUDUS COVENTRIAE 13 

He is troubled ; leaves Joseph realizes Mary's condition and, after he has 

Mary, thinking never debated whether or not to expose her before the 

to return. bishop, resolves to leave her forever. 

Mary prays that God will convince him. God com- 
mands an angel to visit Joseph. 
An angel tells him the The angel explains to Joseph ; he returns home 

story and Joseph and is reconciled. 



goes back. 



Mary's Visit to Elisabeth 

xiii. Mary wishes to go to visit Elizabeth, and Joseph (13) 
gives his consent. 

Contemplacio's Prologue. King David, ordained 
twenty-four priests to serve in the Temple. They 
were called "summi sacerdotes." One was prince 
of priests, Zachariah ; his wife was Elizabeth; the 
story of the annunciation to Elizabeth and how 
Zacharias was made dumb. 

Mary and Joseph arrive at the house of Elizabeth. 
Elizabeth greets Mary as the Mother of God. 
Each of the women tells the story of her an- 
nunciation. 

Mary repeats the MagniUcat in Latin and Elizabeth 
translates it, sentence for sentence, into English. 

Mary says she will stay with Elizabeth three months 
until the child shall be born. 

Joseph greets Zacharias. Elizabeth explains why 
Zacharias can not speak, and Joseph seeks to 
comfort him. 

Joseph and Mary go home. Elizabeth and Zach- 
arias go to the Temple. 

Contemplacio's Epilogue. Says he will give a con- 
clusion (as promised in Contemplacio's prologue 
to the whole group of plays). Here we see how 
the Ave Maria was made. The Angel said, "Ave, 
gratia plena, Dominus tecum, Benedicta tu in 
mulieribus." 16 And Elizabeth said ,"Et benedictus 
fructus ventris tui." '^'^ Thus the church added 
Mary and Jesus. Who says Our Lady's psalter 
daily for a year shall have pardon ten thousand 
eight hundred years. 

Mary , remained with Elizabeth three months 
until John was born, and then Zacharias re- 
gained his speech. They composed the Benedictus 
and the MagniUcat. Then Our Lady took her 
leave. We thank you; with Ave we began and 
with Ave is our conclusion. 



iSHalliwell, p. 112. " HalHwell, p. 126. 



14 



ESTHER L. SWENSON 



This pageant shall be 
of the trial of Jo- 
seph and Mary. 

How they were slan- 
dered (a simple quat- 
rain), 



And must go to their 
purgation. 



Trial of Joseph and Mary 

Den calls the court ; calls a long list of names, John 
Jurdon, Geffry Gyle, etc. 
xiv. "Hie intrabit pagentum de purgatione Mariae et (14) 
Joseph." 

Two detractors, "Bakbytere" and "Reyse-sclaundyr," 
meet and tell the gossip about Mary, resolving 
to spread the news in all quarters. 

The court scene. The Episcopus (called in the j 
stage-direction Abizachar, as in Prologue to 
Mary's Betrothal), having heard the slander, 
sends for Joseph and Mary. They are summoned 
by Den. Trial. 

Joseph goes through the purgation ceremony and 
proves his innocence. 

Mary goes through the purgation and proves her 
innocence. 

First detractor drinks potion and falls to the 
ground. All kneel to Mary. 



Joseph goes after mid- 
wives (a simple quat- 
rain). 



xvi. Christ shall be born. 



Joseph and the Midwives 

KV. Joseph and Mary start for Bethlehem. 
The Cherry-tree episode. 
They are directed by a citizen of Bethlehem to the 

stable where they find shelter. 
Joseph goes for midwives ; Salome and Zelomye re- 
turn with him. 

When they arrive, they can not enter the house for 

the brightness of the light in it. 
Joseph finally enters and finds that the child is 

already born. 
Test of Mary's virginity; Salome's punishment and 

forgiveness. 



(15) 



Angels shall sing. 



Shepherds shall hear of 

the birth of Christ, 
And shall visit Him 



With reverence 
worship. 



and 



The Adoration of the Shepherds 

xvi. Angels sing, "Gloria in excelsis." 

Three shepherds, two of whom are called "Boosras" 
and "Maunfras," speak of the great light they 
have seen and speak of the prophecies, Balaam, 
Moses and the Law, Amos, and Daniel. 

Angels' song repeated. The shepherds seek to imi- 
tate the song. 

They go to seek Christ, singing on the way, "Stella 
coeli extirpavit." 

They adore Christ (a series of dignified verses of 
adoration; no gifts). 

Joseph bids them spread the tidings, which they 
promise to do, and take their farewell. 



(16) 



LUDUS COVENTRIAE 



15 



(The attempt to cor- 
rect the numbering in 
the Prologue is given 
up here.) 

Three kings shall come 
with gold, myrrh, and 
frankincense. 



King Herod's steward 
sees them and brings 
them into the king's 
presence. 

The kings of Cologne 
tell Herod of their 
mission and of the 
star, and of how they 
intend to worship 
Christ that day. 



The Adoration of the Magi 

xviii. (The number xvii is omitted in the MS.) (!') 

Herod gives a long, boastful speech, introducing 

and praising himself. He leaves to go into his 

hall to change his garments. 
The three kings meet; introduce themselves to each 

other: first, Baltazare from Saba, bearing gold; 

second, Melchizar from Tarys, bearing incense; 

third, Jasper from Ypotan and Archage, bearing 

myrrh. 
Herod in another boastful speech brags of his 

beauty and fine apparel as well as his power. He 

has heard that a child is born in Bethlehem. He 

sends his steward out to see if there is any trouble 

abroad. 
The steward finds the three kings sleeping under a 

tree, and he brings them to Herod's court. They 

tell Herod of their mission, of the star, of 

Balaam's prophecy, etc. Herod bids them seek 

the child and report to him. 



The kings take their leave, while Herod expresses 
his wrath. The kings see the star again. 

They adore Christ, offering him gifts. They pre- 
pare to go back to Herod. 

On the way they fall asleep and the angel warns 
them. The kings awake, tell of the vision, re- 
solving not to go back to Herod. 



The Purification 

xix. Simeon Justus, priest in Jerusalem, prays that he (18 ) 
may see the Savior before he dies. An angel re- 
assures hini. 

Simeon and Anna rejoice; they go to the Temple, 
prophesy Christ's death, etc. 

Joseph and Mary come to the Temple. Simeon and 
Anna hail Christ. "Nunc dimittis servum tuum." 

Service in Temple. They burn four candles in 
honor of Christ. The child offered on the altar. 
Joseph pays five pence to take the child back again. 
Capellanus gives them back the child. 

Mary offers the fowls on the altar. 

Slaughter of Innocents and Death of Herod 

XX. Senescallus returns and reports that the Magi (19) 
have fled. 



16 



ESTHER L. SIVENSON 



Herod, angry, sends sol- 
diers out to slay the 
children, 

But Jesus is not to 
be found, for in re- 
sponse to the angel's 
warning, he has gone 
to Egypt. 

The children are torn 
from their mothers' 
arms and slain. 

. The soldiers bring the 
slaughtered children 
before Herod. Herod 
rejoices and orders a 
feast. 

Death enters, 



And the devil takes his 
soul. 



Herod raves (a long alliterative speech). He sends 
soldiers to slay all the children in Bethlehem 
under two years of age. Two soldiers leave. 

An angel appears to Joseph and warns him. He 
takes Mary and the child to Egypt. 



"Tunc ibunt milites ad pueros." Two women la- 
ment the loss of their children. 

The soldiers report. Herod is pleased and orders 
a feast. 



The banquet scene, merry-making. Death enters, 
says he is sent by God to slay Herod. Herod 
bids his soldiers rejoice. The minstrels play. 

Mors slays Herod and the two soldiers. 

The Devil carries them off. Mors moralizes. 



In this part of the cycle we meet with greater complications and more 
difficult problems. The evidences of revision are much more marked than 
in the Old Testament plays. Four of the plays are not provided for at all 
in the Prologue, and it seems probable that they have been added as a whole 
to the cycle. Many of the plays that are demanded by the Prologue bear 
distinct evidences of having been reworked to such an extent that they are 
practically new. For the sake of clearness it seems best to treat each play 
separately, discussing its relation to the general Prologue, its meter and 
stage-directions, and any peculiarities that may appear in the manuscript. 

Moses and the Lazvs 

The direction, "Incipit Moyses," is written very conspicuously in large 
letters at the top of the page, a thing which seems to indicate that the first 
five plays had constituted a separate unit, and that this is the beginning of 
a new group. This would place the Processus Prophetarnm, of which this 
play is essentially a part, with the Nativity group rather than with the Old 
Testament plays.^^ This play, however, ends with the direction. "Explicit 
Moyses," indicating that it stood alone as a separate unit. 

The stage-directions of the play are all very simple and written entirely 
in Latin, a thing which leads one to infer that the play has kept its early 
and rather primitive form. The meter too is simple. With but one very 
minor irregularity of rhyme, where a couplet precedes the regular stanza, the 

18 In this connection cf. Dr. Hardin Craig's article, The Origin of the Old Testament Plays, in 
Mod. Phil. X 'April, 1913). 



LUDUS COVENTRIAE 17 

double quatrain is used throughout. There is nothing in the style or action 
of the play to indicate that it has been revised by a later hand. But the in- 
troduction of the burning bush in a play of the Laws presents an interesting 
complication. This incident would properly belong in an Exodus play, and 
its presence here may be a confusion of the Exodus with a play of the 
Laws. The Chester cycle has no episode of the burning bush; but in the 
York and Towneley, where the incident occurs, it is found in the Exit from 
Egy^pt and the Pharaoh respectively. The play of the Ten Commandments 
occurs in the Towneley cycle in the play called Processus Prophetaruni, in 
the Chester, in the Pagina de Mose et Rege Balaak et Balaam Propheta. 
York, having no regular Processus Prophetaruni, has also no play of Moses 
and the Laws. 

The Prophets 

Although this play does not begin with an "Incipit," it ends with the 
direction, "Explicit Jesse," which is the only stage-direction in the play. It 
presents no peculiarities of manuscript except that a genealogy of Mary, 
similar to the genealogies of the first group, begins on folio 37 and is con- 
tinued on folio 37b. 

The play is written in the double quatrain measure of the preceding play. 
From the time Solomon enters each character speaks only four lines, but 
the single quatrains thus formed can in every case be united to form the 
typical double quatrain, ababbcbc. 

It will be noted that the Prologue states that prophets shall prophesy, 
not of Christ, but of a "qwene the whiche xal staunche our stryff and moote" ; 
and an examination of the prophecies will show that the emphasis lies 
upon the birth of the Virgin, and not of Christ. The introduction of 
thirteen kings, all of whom announce themselves as progenitors of Mary, 
shows this tendency, as well as the fact that there are no less than fifteen 
direct references to the Virgin in these prophecies. In the Towneley Pro- 
cessus Prophetarum Mary is mentioned directly only once, in the prophecy 
of Daniel,^^ and there the main part of the prophecy concerns Christ. The 
Towneley Shepherds' play introduces the traditional prophecy from Isaiah, 
and also mentions the prefiguration of the Virgin in the burning bush. But 
neither here nor in the cycles of York and Chester is the attention so con- 
stantly directed to the Virgin. The fact that the Prologue specifically pro- 
vides for prophecies of this nature indicates that the unusual interest in 
Virgin Mary was a peculiarity of the cycle originally and not to be ascribed 
wholly to the period of revision. 

The following table of the prophecies found in the four cycles will serve to 
show more clearly how Ludiis Coz^^w/na^ is distinguished from the other plays. 

19 The Towneley Mysteries, E. E. T. S., p. 64, 1. 232. 



18 



ESTHER L. SWENSON 



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26 ESTHER L. SWENSON 

After these two plays, which are comparatively simple, we have the in- 
troduction of an Expositor who is called Contemplacio. He recites, before 
the play proper of Anna and Joachim begins, a general prologue promising 
to present to the people (1) the story of Anna and Joachim, (2) Mary's 
presentation in the Temple, (3) her betrothal, (4) the story of the Saluta- 
tion, and, finally, (5) Mary's visit to Elizabeth. In connection with this last 
play he promises a conclusion. Then follow these five plays dealing with 
the life of the Virgin which in general tone and style are very different from 
the plays we have examined so far. The ecclesiastical element is very prom- 
inent in these plays, and there can be little doubt that they were introduced 
into the cycle at some time later than the writing of the Prologue. I do not 
think, however, that an entirely new group of plays was simply incorpor- 
ated as a whole into the cycle without any modification. Some of the plays 
indicate clearly that old material has been combined with new. The Pro- 
logue provides for plays on two of these subjects, Mary's Betrothal and the 
Salutation. The other three plays promised by Contemplacio are not pro- 
vided for in the Prologue, and in the case of the first two, the Barrenness 
of Anna and Mary's Presentation, there can be little doubt that they are 
entirely new. The Visit to Elizabeth, however, bears internal evidence of 
the combination of two versions. 

This Contemplacio does not appear again after this group of Virgin 
plays and is probably, as Collier states, one of the later additions to the 
cycle.^" 

I With this group of plays the tumbling meter makes its reappearance, and 
here, too, we have for the first time the introduction of English stage- 
directions. Throughout the whole group of plays dealing with the Nativity, 
English stage-directions are used only in these Virgin plays and in the play 
lof the Purification which is also unprovided for in the Prologue. These 
Ipoints will be discussed more specifically in connection with the individual 
plays. 

Tlie Barrenness of Anna 

This play is taken up largely v»'ith services in the Temple, the singing of 
hymns, sequences, etc. It is distinctly ecclesiastical in tone and is written 
entirely in the tumbling measure, with a great deal of alliteration in the first 
part of the play. There are two or three little irregularities of rhyme, but 
the play, taken as a whole, employs the rhyming scheme of the double quat- 
rain. The fact that it is not accounted for in* the Prologue, taken together 



20 The one instance in the Herod play of the Passion where the expositor is called Contem- 
placio is, I think, hardly to be considered as a reappearance of that character. It seems probable 
that it suggested itself to the scribe that it would be well to call the expositor in the later play by 
the same name as the similar character in the earlier group. 



LUDUS COVENTRIAE 27 

with this use of the tumbling meter, seems to indicate beyond any doubt that 
the whole play is an interpolation. 

Here, too, we have our first English stage-direction/'There they xall synge 
this sequens, 'Benedicta, etc.,' and in that tyme Ysaker with his ministeres 
insensythe the autere and than thei make her offryng, and Isaker seyth, etc." 
And from this point English stage-directions are used freely, though hot 
exclusively, throughout the Contemplacio group. In this play and the fol- 
lowing the bishop is given the name Ysaker, but in the general Prologue to 
the tenth play, as well as in the play of the Trial of Joseph and Mary, he 
is called Abyacar. So that it would seem that Abyacar is his cycle name. In 
this connection it is interesting to note that in the manuscript (folio 37b) 
in the genealogy there is a note to the effect that Ysaker was the father of 
Anne. The name Ysaker (Issachar) is derived from the Gospel of the 
Nativity of Mary; Abiathar from Pseudo-Matthew. 

The Presentation of Mary in the Temple 

This play, like the preceding, is not provided for in the general Prologue 
and comes into the cycle as entirely new. It also is filled with ecclesiastical 
material, such as the fifteen psalms that Mary recites when she ascends the 
fifteen steps in the Temple, the allegorical names given to her maids and to 
the seven priests who are to instruct her, the significance of the five letters 
in her name, and so forth. 

The manuscript shows no distinct division between these two plays ; 
Contemplacio's introductory speech^^ follows immediately upon Anne's last 
speech in the preceding play, and the figure 9 also stands in the margin here. 
Then we have, following immediately, the direction, "Here Joachym and 
Anna, with oure lady between hem, etc." After this there is a short space 
left blank before Joachim's speech, "Blyssyd be oure Lord . . .," which 
begins at the top of the next folio, 49b. 

The stage-directions are in both English and Latin. The meter, like that 
of the former play, is the tumbling measure. The stanzas are largely double 
quatrains, but with occasional single quatrains, particularly in the part 
where Mary recites her fifteen psalms. Contemplacio's speech at the end of 
the play shows a confusion, as far as rhyme scheme is concerned, of the quat- 
rain with the prologue stanza thus : ababcdcdbebefgggf. 

Contemplacio introduces this play with a prologue that reviews the play 
of Anna and Joachim before it tells what is to follow in this play. At the end 
of the play Contemplacio gives an epilogue reviewing this one play and also 
introducing the two which are to follow it. In the manuscript the figure 10 
is written opposite this second part of Contemplyicio's speech, and if this 

2iHalliwell, p. 79. 



28 ESTHER L. SVVENSON 

part be regarded as a prologue to the following play, each of the five plays 
mentioned in Contemplacio's first general prologue are specially intro- 
duced by that character. And, regarding the first four lines of his prologue 
to this play of the Presentation of Mary-^ as an epilogue to the play of Anna 
and Joachim, three of the five plays have a conclusion or epilogue recited 
by this same Contemplacio. 

This character would not appear on one pageant and recite his epilogue 
and then suddenly appear on the next and recite a prologue to that play. 
There are no directions to this effect, nor does it seem possible that he could 
do so. Moreover, the characters of these five plays are much the same. 
Anna and Joachim appear in the first three ; Mary plays in all of them ; 
Joseph appears in the Betrothal and the Visit to Elizabeth ; the bishop Ysakar 
or Abyacar appears in the first three. So that evidently these five plays, as 
they now stand, were acted on the same stage as one continuous performance, 
whether on a pageant or a fixed stage. 

Mary's Betrothal 

The material covered in this pla}^ is provided for by the general Pro- 
logue, but it is divided into two pageants, one of which, originally num- 
bered 8, treats of Mary's appearance in the Temple for espousal ; and the 
other, originally numbered 9, treats of the presentation of the rods. As they, 
now stand they are both numbered 10. It seems that the scribe attempted 
at first to make the numbering of the Prologue agree with the plays. He 
soon abandoned his attempt, however, as may be seen by looking at the pre- 
ceding table of comparison between Prologue and plays. 

The first section of the Prologue carries the action, from the bishop's 
proclamation that the daughters of the Jews shall be presented for marriage 
to the angel's command that David's kindred shall be sent for and that they 
shall carry white, rods in their hands. The second part continues the action, 
presenting the blossoming of Joseph's rod, and so on to the marriage. The 
actual incidents of the play correspond exactly with those mentioned in the 
Prologue, as far as the latter goes. But there seems to be an elaboration of 
certain scenes introducing church ceremonies (such as that of the marriage 
ceremony, which is given in detail) that are not in keeping with the general 
simplicity of the earlier plays of the cycle. The Prologue ends with the 
statement that the bishop gives Mary three maidens to live with her and wait 
upon her. These maidens are given names in the play, Rebecca, Susanne. 
and Sephore. Then the play goes on to relate how Joseph left Mary at the 
Temple, went to Nazareth, rented a house, and came back to bring his wife 
to their new home. He then leaves her again to go into a far country to earn 

22HalliwelI, p. 79. 



LUDUS COVENTRIAE 29 

means for their sustenance. Of all this there is no mention in the general 
Prologue. 

Another notable circumstance is that, whereas in the preceding play 
Mary is left at the Temple with the understanding that she is to remain 
there until her fourteenth year, in this play she is brought to the Temple by 
her parents and no mention is made of her having been there before. So also 
in his epilogue to the preceding play, Contemplacio speaks of this play as 
taking place fourteen years after the Presentation instead of eleven years. 

The story of the presentation of the rods is old material and generally 
known throughout the Middle Ages. Though it is not actually presented 
in any of the other cycles, it is mentioned both in the Towneley and York 
cycles.^^ This circumstance, together with the closeness of parallel between 
the Prologue and the play, makes it evident that the play as a whole does not 
belong to the period of revision. What probably took place seems to me tq 
be this : When the scribe came to add a new Virgin play, he found in the 
old cycle a play on this same subject of the Betrothal of Mary which cor- 
responded pretty closely with the section of the Virgin play dealing with 
this subject ; so he used the old play as a basis and possibly borrowed little 
touches here and there from the Virgin play. The elaboration of the mar- 
riage ceremony and the adding of the incidents which follow may be ac- 
counted for in this way. 

A study of the metrical arrangement of the play supports such a conclu- 
sion. There is very little use of the tumbling line which is elsewhere charac- 
teristic of the Virgin play. It appears distinctly only in the scenes where the 
bishop consults with his minister-* and where he pronounces the marriage 
vows for Joseph and Mary. The main body of the play is in the prologue 
meter, and other parts are written in the simple double quatrain stanza. 

In this same connection it is interesting to note that all the stage- 
directions of this play are in Latin. 

This section of the manuscript also presents some puzzling problems. 
Folios 51b, 52b, 53b are blank, while on folio 51 Joseph's speech, beginning 
'Tn gret labore my lyff I lede," and ending "To some man dowty and bold,"^^ 
is written in a later hand. It is also out of place and should be inserted, as 
noted in the manuscript, after line 7 on folio 53. 

The Salutation and Conception 

With this play we have the reappearance both of the ecclesiastical tone 
and of English stage-directions. The general Prologue to the cycle men- 
tions Gabriel's visit to the Virgin and also states that the three maidens 
waited upon her, heard the conversation between Mary and the Angel but 

23 The Towneley Mysteries, E. E. T. S., p. 93; York, p. 103. n 

24Halliwell, p. 93. , 25 ifalliwell, pp. 94-95. 



30 ESTHER L. SWENSON 

saw no one. The three maidens do not appear at all in the play as we now 
have it, but the greater part of the action is taken up with Contemplacio's 
explanation of how mankind had suffered four thousand six hundred and 
four years, and the debate between the four daughters of God, the council 
of the Trinity, Gabriel's instructions, and so forth, all of which must 
undoubtedly belong to our ecclesiastical Virgin play. This ecclesiastical 
tone so pervades the whole play that it would almost seem as if none of the 
original cycle play had been preserved and that this play, like the Barrenness 
of Anna and Mary's Presentation, had been substituted entirely from the 
Virgin play. Mr. Hemingway reaches much the same conclusion.-'' In this 
connection it is interesting to note that the greater part of the play, beginning 
with the speech of Justice"^ to the end of the play, is written in a different 
hand. 

The tumbling meter makes its appearance in this play in two instances, 
the first three stanzas of Contemplacio's speech and the last stanza of 
Gabriel's speech.^® Otherwise the play as a whole is written in simple double 
and single quatrains. 

Joseph's Trouble about Mary 

Joseph's return was not mentioned in Contemplacio's prologue, nor does 
Contemplacio appear in this play. It probably does not belong to the Vir- 
gin play, but to the original cycle. The incidents are simple and there is a 
comparatively consistent relationship with the Prologue, although little 
touches here and there, such as the halo surrounding Mary's face upon 
Joseph's return, seem to have an ecclesiastical quality. 

The play has no stage- directions and the basal meter is the prologue 
stanza. The first twenty lines of the play seem to be a confusion of single 
and double quatrains. Then, beginning at the bottom of page 117 in Halli- 
well's edition to the last stanza on page 1 19, with two minor irregularities of 
rhyme, we find the prologue meter. This verse form is again resumed in 
the last thirteen lines on page 121, where the angel speaks to Joseph, and 
also in the last stanza on page 122, where Mary and Joseph are reconciled. 
After the first four lines of page 119, we have the appearance for the first 
time of our fifth type of verse, aabaabbcbc. It is carried on from this 
point, with three exceptions where we have the prologue stanza, to the 
last stanza of the play. The last twelve lines show the same sort of confusion 
of quatrains that we find in the first part of the play. There is no appearance 
of the tumbling meter. 



28 Hemingway, English Nativity Plays, Intro, p. xxxv. For a comparison of this play with 
others, see Hemingway, Intro, p. xfiv; and Pollard, English Miracle Plays, Ed. 1909, pp. xxix, 226; 
also Miss Traver's Four Daughters of God, Bryn Mawr Diss., 1907. 

27HalHwell, p. 110. 28 Halliwell, pp. 105, 106, 116. 



^ LUDUS COVENTRIAE 31 

Mary's Visit to Elizabeth 

There is no provision for the Visit to Elizabeth in the general Prologue, 
and the play as it now stands belongs largely to the ecclesiastical play. 
Nevertheless, it seems improbable that the scene should have been entirely 
omitted. It seems possible to me that the section of the general Prologue 
devoted to this play was omitted in the rewriting that took place when the 
Virgin play was added, or at some earlier period of revision. The Pro- 
logue bears evidence of having been tampered with here, since the next two 
sections, introducing the Trial of Joseph and Mary and Joseph and the 
Midwives are written in simple quatrains instead of the regular prologue 
stanza. Moreover, although the birth of Jesus actually takes place in the 
play of Joseph and the Midwives, it is ascribed by the Prologue to the play 
of the Shepherds. From its position in the liturgy it is very probable that 
the play of the Shepherds stood in general for the Nativity.^^ 'I think it 
probable that the two plays which follow the Visit to Elizabeth, with their 
sections in the Prologue, are additions to the original Corpus Christi cycle, 
though not parts of the Virgin play, since this ends with the Visit to 
Elizabeth. 

The play of Mary's Visit, as it now stands, bears internal evidence that 
two plays have been combined to form it. After Elizabeth has greeted Mary 
with the Ave Maria and they have recited the Magnificat, Mary says that 
she will stay with Elizabeth three months. Then almost immediately she and 
Joseph take their leave. At the end of the play, however, Contemplacio 
says that Mary remained with Elizabeth. So that it would appear that in 
one version, probably that of the original cycle, Mary and Joseph left as 
they do here ; but that in the ecclesiastical play they remained with Elizabeth 
three months, until John was born. 

The inconsistency of the play of Mary's Visit to Elizabeth indicates not 
only that this play is made up from two different sources, but also furnishes 
evidence to substantiate our theory as to the composition of the whole group. 
In the Virgin play Mary remained with Elizabeth three months, until John 
was born. But John was six months older than Jesus, so that in. this play 
the visit must have been thought of as taking place immediately after the 
Salutation. In the original cycle, on the other hand, we believe that the 
plays came in this order, namely. Betrothal, Salutation, Joseph's Return, 
Visit to Elizabeth. Now, in the Betrothal, a play preserved largely in its 
original form, Joseph tells Mary that he must leave her to be gone nine 
months.^" When he returns, before the Visit to Elizabeth, he finds that Mary 
is "great with child." So that in the earlier form of the cycle the Saluta- 
tion must have taken place very shortly after the Betrothal, and the plays 

2»Cf. Hemingway, p. 260. SOHalHwell, p. 104. 



32 ESTHER L. SWENSON 

oi Joseph's Trouble and the Visit to Elizabeth, shortly before the birth of 
Christ. Thus it appears, beyond question, that the play of the Betrothal and 
that part of the Visit to Elizabeth which indicates that Mary did not remain 
with Elizabeth, are consistent with each other and belong to the earlier form 
of the cycle. Mary's speech in the Visit to Elizabeth^^ indicates clearly that a 
part of the present play of the Visit to Elizabeth belongs with the Betrothal 
and the Return of Joseph, thus proving, beyond a doubt, not only that the 
play of the Visit is composite in structure, but that there was such a play in 
the original cycle. 

Contemplacio's epilogue to this play is the conclusion promised in his 
first prologue. It is didactic and is concerned for the most part with the 
worship of the Virgin. Hemingway calls attention to the inaccuracy of the 
English translations from the Latin in this play and cites it as a proof that 
the original plays were written in English.^^ 

Another argument in favor of a stationary stage for this Virgin play 
appears here in the stage-direction, "Et sic transiet circa placeam." That is, 
Joseph and Mary walk about the place going to Elizabeth's house, while 
Contemplacio speaks his prologue. There is also an English stage-direction 
in this play. 

The play begins in the tumbling meter, which is carried through to the 
twenty-fourth line of page 128 in Halliwell. Beginning here, however, and 
continuing to Contemplacio's epilogue, the simple double quatrain stanza is 
used. This is the part that seems to belong to the original play and not to 
the Virgin play. The first and last stanzas in Contemplacio's epilogue are 
in tumbling verse, but it seems doubtful if those between are. 

This play marks the end of the Virgin cycle. 

The Trial of Joseph and Mary 

This play is very different in tone and spirit from the other plays in the 
cycle. The interest seems to center upon the coarse horse-play of the 
slanderers, which must have been a later development, but surely not eccle- 
siastical in origin. The Prologue to this play, as noted before, is a simple 
quatrain. It does not adequately represent the play, but simply speaks of the 
fact that Joseph and Mary were slandered and went to their purgation. The 
purgation scene itself is simple and reverent enough and may possibly have 
been a part of the original cycle. 

The introductory speech of Den, with its long list of alliterative and 
allegorical names, is written into the manuscript in a different hand before 
the figure 14 occurs and belongs probably to a later period. It is followed 
by the direction, "Hie intrabit pagentum de purgatione, etc." This is the 
only place in the cycle proper where a play is introduced as a pageant. 

"Halliwell, p. 124, 11. 13-16. 32 Hemingway, English Nativity Plays, p. 255. 



LUDUS COVENTRIAE 33 

The stage-directions are all written in Latin. Metrically also the play is 
very simple. Den's introductory speech represents a return to the linked 
ballad measure, aaabcccb, but is a little irregular. The rest of the play 
is written in simple double quatrains, ending with a simple quatrain. There 
is no appearance of tumbling meter. 

The return of the name "Abiyacher" for the bishop rather than "Ysaker" 
in this play is interesting and may be regarded as an additional piece of evi- 
dence that this play does not belong to the Virgin play. However, the name 
is only written in parenthetically in one of the stage-directions and nowhere 
in the play is the bishop called Abiyacher. He is always termed Episcopus. 
It is possible that when the scribe was writing this play he noticed that in the 
general Prologue to the play of the Betrothal the bishop had been called by 
this name, and so he ascribed it to him here. 

Joseph and the Midwives 

This play may have come into the cycle at the same time as the preced- 
ing play, for like that play it is represented in the general Prologue by a 
simple quatrain. This Prologue simply states that Joseph shall get for mid- 
wives. But the play presents the journey to Bethlehem (including the 
Cherry-tree episode), the birth of Christ, the punishment of Salome, etc. 
The Cherry-tree episode^^ is written in the tumbling meter, whereas the rest 
of the play is in simple double quatrains. This appearance of the tumbling 
meter, as well as the use of the legends from the life of Mary, the mentioning 
of the bright light that surrounds the stable, etc., might relate this play to the 
Virgin play. But there is no appearance of Contemplacio, or of English 
stage-directions; nor does it contain any distinctly ecclesiastical material, 
such as church ritual and elaborate ceremonies. I think it can hardly belong 
to that play, but that it came into the cycle earlier from some other source, 
as suggested before in the discussion of Mary's Visit to Elizabeth. 

The Adoration of the Shepherds 

With the exception that the Prologue provides for the actual nativity in 
this play, an explanation of which has been suggested before, the corre- 
spondence between Prologue and play is very close. The tone of the play is 
dignified and reverent in contrast to the Shepherds' plays of other cycles. 
It seems that the one case where the shepherds seek to imitate the angels' 
song must be a later borrowing, for it is out of keeping with the rest of the 
play. This part of the play presents an interruption of the meter which 
would seem to confirm such a theory. The main body of the play is written 
in the ballad measure, aaabcccb, with two stanzas in the prologue meter ; 

33Halliwell, pp. 145, 146. 



34 ESTHER L. SWENSON 

but the part in which the shepherds imitate the angels is in single quatrains. 
As in the Towneley and York cycles, the shepherds here also quote from 
the prophecies.^* In the Chester play^^ one of the shepherds says, "Thd 
prophets did tell thou shold be our succour." But there is no direct quota- 
tion of prophecies.^^ 

The Adoration of the Magi 

The action in this play is somewhat elaborated, written in a sort of 
pompous mock-heroic style, with frequent alliteration in Herod's speeches, 
and much variation of meter. But the first part of the play up to the 
departure of the three kings from Herod's court, follows very closely the 
action prescribed in the Prologue. It seems strange that the Prologue makes 
no mention of the actual adoration of the Christ child, and of the angel's 
warning to the three kings. However, it may be that this was taken for 
granted and is implicit in the gifts. 

The basal meter of the play seems to be the ballad strophe which occurs 
in both long- and short-line stanzas. One of Herod's speeches is in the 
prologue measure, but in his introductory speech Herod employs the tum- 
bling line. 

The part of Herod's speech beginning "He is yong and I am olde" and 
continuing to the line, "Herowdys to the devyl he tryste,"^^ is written in a 
different hand. 

The Purification 

The Purification play is a very simple biblical play, but its omission in the 
Prologue, as well as the fact that the action in the following play seems to 
follow immediately upon that of the Three Kings, would seem to indicate 
that it belongs to the later additions. As it now stands, it may be that its 
introduction between the two parts of the Herod play, as a sort of interlude, 
indicates a stationary stage. 

Here again we have the appearance of English stage-directions which 
are used almost exclusively throughout the play ; whereas in the two parts 
of the Herod play the directions are all Latin. 

The entire play is written in the same form of meter that is used in part 
of the play of Joseph's Trouble about Mary. This verse- form, our fifth type 
of verse, aabaabbcbc, is not used elsewhere in the cycle. 

'■* See the table given in the discussion of the Processus Prophetarum. 

35 Chester, E. E. T. S., p. 155, 1. 568. 

38 Folio 91b in the manuscript which follows ehe play of the Shepherds contains a number of 
scratchings but is otherwise blank. Much of the writing is illegible, but the name William Dere can 
clearly be made out and occurs three times on this page. The name John Taylphott of parish Bed- 
inton is also written here. 

"Halliwell, pp. 168-170. 



LUDUS COVENTRIAE 35 

On folio 100b of the manuscript, which is the last page of the play, 
occurs the date 1468, written in the margin and apparently by the scribe. 
Upon this fact is based the belief that the greater part of the manuscript 
was written at this time. 



Slaughter of the Innocents 

This play as it now stands includes the Flight into Egypt, the Slaughter 
of the Innocents, and the Death of Herod. The Prologue divides these 
scenes into two pageants, including in the first the Flight into Egypt and 
the Slaughter ; and in the second the Death of Herod. This would seem to 
be a logical division and is probably the way it occurred in the original cycle. 
Death is mentioned in the Prologue as an allegorical figure, so that there 
seems to be no reason to believe that allegorical figures must of necessity 
be later additions. 

This play presents two forms of meter. The second and fourth stanzas 
of the play, which constitute the boastful parts of Herod's first speech, are in 
the prologue meter ; also the banqueting scene and the death of Herod. The 
rest of the play is in the ballad measure, long- and short-line forms being 
used interchangeably, the short lines usually for the soldiers' speeches. 

At the end of the play there are two folios of the manuscript, 105 and 
105b, left blank. 

We have then in this Nativity group a number of plays, the meter and style 
of which seem to indicate that they come from various sources. Chief among 
the later additions to the cycle is a very elaborate Virgin play which must 
undoubtedly be ecclesiastical in origin. Though essentially a unit, as it now 
stands in the cycle it is divided into five separate plays : ( 1 ) The Barrenness 
of Anna, (2) Mary's Presentation in the Temple, (3) Mary's Betrothal, (4) 
The Salutation, and (5) Mary's Visit to Elizabeth. The first, second, and 
fourth of these have probably come into the cycle as entirely new. The third 
seems in all essentials a play belonging to the original cycle with possible 
touches here and there from the ecclesiastical source. The fifth is largely 
new, but seems also to contain elements of an old play. The Trial of Joseph 
and Mary, Joseph and the Midwives, and the Purification also represent later 
additions to the cycle, though not springing from the same ecclesiastical 
source. 

Metrically the group presents, in addition to the forms of verse used in 
the Old Testament plays (the prologue verse, single and double quatrains, 
the ballad stanza), a new form aabaabbcbc which is found only in 
Joseph's Trouble about Mary and the Purification. The tumbling meter also 
plays a considerable part in the ecclesiastical group of plays. After that it 



36 



ESTHER L. S WEN SON 



occurs only in the Cherry-tree episode and in Herod's introductory speech in 
the play of the Magi. 

English stage-directions make their first appearance also in the plays Of 
the Virgin, and are used in all of these except Mary's Betrothal. They also 
appear again in the Purification, but otherwise the directions are in Latin. 

GROUP III 

xxi. Christ and the Doctors xxiii. The Temptation 

xxii. Baptism of Jesus xxiv. Woman Taken in Adultery 

XXV. The Resurrection of Lazarus 



Prologue 



Plays 



Christ and the Doctors 



Christ at twelve years 
of age disputed with 
the doctors and over- 
came them. They 
marveled. 

Three days he was 
gone from his moth- 
er. She sought him 
about Jerusalem. 



(20) 



Preliminary conversation : Two doctors boast of 
their learning; Jesus rebukes them and they make 
fun of him. 

Dispute : Jesus asks them how the world was made. 
They discuss the Trinity, Christ's divinity, the 
prophecies of his birth, etc. Jesus explains that 
Mary was wedded to Joseph in order to deceive 
rhe devil, and so that she would not have to go 
alone into Egypt. 

Mary and Joseph enter, find Jesus and take him 
home. The doctors worship him. 



John shall baptize Jesus 
in Jordan. The 
Spirit descends ; the 
voice of God. 

The Spirit shall lead 
Him to the wilder- 
ness to stay forty 
days. 



The Baptism of Jesus 
xxii.38 

John preaches in the wilderness. 

"Ecce vox clamantis, etc." 

"Penitenciam nunc agite ! 

Appropinquabit regnum coelorum." 
Jesus approaches and asks John to baptize him. 

John protests. 
Baptism proper. Spirit descends; the voice of God; 

John's testimony. 



Jesus says he is going into the wilderness for forty 
days, led of the Spirit. 



John preaches to the people. 
88 The MS. has no number here. 



(21) 



LUDUS COVENTRIAE 



37 



Council in hell, wonder 
who Jesus is, send 
Satan to tempt him 
in three sins : 



But Christ 
them all. 



answered 



The Temptation 
xxiii. 

Council in hell. Satan is puzzled about Christ, 
consults with Belial and Beelzebub. They de- 
cide to test him, in the three sins to which man 
is most prone. Satan is to tempt him. 

Jesus appears soliloquizing; says he has fasted forty 
days, etc. 

The temptation: (1) stones to bread; (2) fall from 
pinnacle of Temple; (3) kneel to Satan. Jesus 
sends away Satan who is much grieved and puz- 
zled. 

Angels minister to Jesus. 

Jesus preaches resistance to temptation. 



(22) 



The Woman Taken in Adultery 
"xxist pagent shall be of a xxiv. 



(23) 



woman taken in adul- 
tery." 

Pharisees conceive a 
plan to convict 
Christ. If he show 
the woman mercy, he 
is against the law of 
Moses. If he con- 
demn her, he is in- 
consistent with his 
own preaching. 



Jesus' long speech ; urges repentance ; talks of 
God's mercy. 

Conspiracy. Scribe and Pharisee are angry with 
Christ, decide that they must trap him. Accusa- 
tor comes in and tells them about the woman. 



Scene at the woman's house. The woman before 
Jesus ; customary scene. Jesus writes on the 
ground while the Scribe and Pharisee accuse. "He 
that is without sin, etc." They grow ashamed 
and leave. Jesus speaks to the woman, gives a 
little talk on repentance. 

The Resurrection of Lazarus 



i. The greatest miracle 
that Jesus wrought 
was the resurrection 
of Lazarus, in whose 
house he often vis- 
ited. 

Lazarus was dead for 
four days, 



And on the fourth day 
awakened by Jesus. 



(24) 



Lazarus is ill; his sisters and four consolatores 
seek to comfort him, but Lazarus asks for Jesus. 
Fourth consolator and Nuncius go for Jesus. 
Lazarus dies and is buried. 

Jesus and the messengers ; says he will come ; walks 
with disciples. 

Messengers bring Christ's answer to Mary and 
Martha. 

Jesus arrives ; they go to the tomb ; Lazarus awak- 
ened. Jesus says he must go to his passion. 



38 ESTHER L. SWENSON 

As far as incident and correspondence with the Prologue are concerned 
this group of plays is even more simple than the Old Testament group. 
There is no appearance of the tumbling meter, nor any clear evidence of inci- 
dents which have been added to the original cycle. There are, however, 
certain elements of style and general tone in two of the plays, Christ and 
the Doctors and the Woman Taken in Adultery, which seem to indicate a 
later period. The theological discussions between Christ and the doctors, 
such as the explanations of the Trinity, the Virgin birth, the statement that 
Mary was wedded to Joseph in order to deceive the devil, and others,^^ sound 
too sophisticated for an early stage of the plays and recall the ecclesiastical 
tone of the Nativity plays. The play of the Doctors in the York, Towneley, 
and Chester cycles is much more simple, and is one and the same play.** 
In all of these the doctors are discussing the sacredness of Moses' law, and 
Jesus, after he has told them that he has been taught by the Holy Spirit, 
recites the ten commandments. In the Towneley cycle this is preceded by 
a discussion, by the doctors, of the prophecies concerning Christ ; and in the 
Chester play the doctors mention these prophecies after Jesus has left. But 
in none of these cycles is there any discussion of theological doctrines such as 
we find in our play. 

The parts of the play of the Woman Taken in Adultery that are specif- 
ically covered in the Prologue are written in a quiet, reverent tone; but the 
elaboration in the first part of the play, particularly the scene at the woman's 
house, introduces much the same coarse, boisterous style that we have 
already noted in the Trial of Joseph and Mary. Both plays are written 
prevailingly in the same meter, namely, the simple double quatrain verse. 

There seems to be nothing particularly noteworthy about the play of the 
Baptism as far as style and content are concerned, except possibly that the 
large number of Latin quotations may indicate an early stage. 

In the play of the Temptation it seems strange that the Prologue makes 
no mention of the Angel's ministering to Jesus after the temptation ; other- 
wise, however, there is an exact correspondence between the two. 

An interesting consideration in the Lazarus play is the rapid shifting of 
scene from the house of Lazarus and his sisters to the place where Jesus 
is resting with his disciples. Then we have Jesus with his disciples walking 
through Judea; then a scene at the house of Lazarus again and, finally, 
the scene at the tomb. In this respect the play reminds one of the 
play of the Last Supper, where the scene of action alternates between 
the room where Jesus and the disciples are eating the last supper and the 
council chamber ; though the action here is much less elaborate and there is 



89 On this point, see York, p. 94, 11. 25-32; Chester, p. 154, 1. 538. 

40 Tiivo Coventry Corpus Christi Plays, E. E. T. S., edited by Hardin Craig, Introduction. 



LUDUS COVENTRIAE 39 

nothing in the stage-directions to indicate definitely a stationary stage, as 
in the later play. 

Metrically this group of plays is- extremely simple, only two forms of 
meter being used. Three of the plays, Christ and the Doctors, the Woman 
Taken in Adultery, and Lazarus, are written entirely in simple double 
quatrains ; and the other two, the Baptism and the Temptation, entirely in the 
prologue meter. 

In this part of the cycle there are no indications from stage-directions 
or from the manuscript, such as were found in the Old Testament plays, 
that the group was considered as a unit. On the contrary there is at least 
one blank page left between each two of the plays; and the three plays 
that are written in the double quatrain measure are introduced by a stage- 
direction somewhat in the nature of an "Incipit." Thus the Doctors' play 
is introduced by this direction, "Modo de doctoribus disputantibus cum 
Jhesu in templo," and ends with an "Amen." The Woman Taken in Adul- 
tery begins "Hie de muliere in adulterio deprehensa," and ends with an 
"Amen." And finally the Lazarus play begins with the direction, "Hie 
incipit de suscitatione Lazari," but does not, however, end with an "Amen." 

With the other two plays, the Baptism and the Temptation, both of which 
are written in the prologue meter, the case seems to be different. Although 
there is a page and a half left blank between them in the manuscript, the 
stage-directions would seem to indicate that they were acted together. On 
the folio in the manuscript where the play of the Baptism begins" (folio 
112), there is no "Incipit," but on folio 11 lb, which aside from a few other 
scribbles is left blank, we have the direction, "Hie Incipit Johannes Baptysta." 
There is no "Amen" in this play, nor any "Incipit" in the Temptation, but the 
latter play ends with an "Amen." But more significant is, I believe, the stage- 
direction near the end of the play of the Baptism, after Jesus has said that 
he is led of the Spirit to go to the wilderness, "Hie Jhesus transit in deser- 
tum, dicens, etc."*^ Then follows a short speech by Jesus in which he says 
that he is going to fast in the desert for forty days and nights ; after which 
comes John's sermon. The Temptation play then opens with the council in 
hell. 

The manuscript in this part of the cycle presents some interesting pe- 
culiarities, the most important of which is the fact that the first speech of 
John the Baptist in the play of the Baptism*^ is written in a different hand, 
which may possibly be of the same general period, but not of the same 
scribe as that of the rest of the cycle. This new hand is, I believe, the same 
as that noted in the play of the Magi. After this speech the name "Jhesus" 
is written as the next speaker in this same hand, but Jesus' speech begins 
on the next page in the scribe's own hand. 

« Halliwell, p. 199. 42 Halliwell, p. 203. 43 Halliwell, pp. 199, 200. 



40 ESTHER L. SWENSON 

On folio 111b of the manuscript, we have in addition to the "Hie incipit 
Johannes Baptysta," the name "John Kinge the yownger" written in a later 
hand tog-ether with another scribble that I have not yet been able to decipher. 
Folios 119b, 120, 121, and 126b also contain minor scribbles; but as far as I 
have been able to read them, they do not seem to be of any great signif- 
icance. 

The stage-directions of this entire group are very simple and without 
exception in Latin. 



GROUP IV 

xxvi. Council of Jews and Entry xxxv. Release of Souls from Hell 

xxvii. The Last Supper and Council and Report of Watch 

xxviii. The Betrayal xxxvi. The Three Marys 

xxix. Herod and Trial, Pt. I xxxvii. Mary Magdalen 

XXX. Trial, Pt. H xxxviii. Peregrini and Thomas 

xxxi. Pilate's Wife's Dream and xxxix. Ascension 

Condemnation xl. Pentecost 

xxxii. Crucifixion xli. Assumption of Virgin 

xxxiii. Harrowing of Hell xlii. Judgment 
xxxiv. Burial and Setting of the 
Watch 



Prologue Plays 

The Council of the Jews and Entry 

xxvi. Demon's Prologue. Says he is Lucifer who came (25) 
out of hell, prince of this world, etc. His mis- 
sion is to ruin men and torture them in hell. 

He tells the story of his fall ; he took one-third of 
the angels with him. He thinks nothing of get- 
ting one thousand souls in an hour. But now 
he is troubled about Christ. He has tried to 
tempt him, but failed (mentions the three temp- 
tations). He is worried about Christ's growing 
popularity, raising Lazarus and forgiving Mag- 
dalen, and resolves to seek to confuse him when 
the time for his persecution comes ; to bring false 
witnesses, induce his disciples to forsake him and 
thus to be revenged. 

Then he addresses himself to the people, urges 
them to follow him, promises rewards, instructs 
them. 



LUDUS COVENTRIAE 



41 



xxiii. The twenty-third pag- 
eant shall be of 
Palm Sunday. We 
shall show how the 
children of the He- 
brews scattered flow- 
ers before Christ. 



John the Baptist appears, prophesies of Christ, "One 
shall come after me, etc.," and preaches a long 
sermon. 

Annas appears, is troubled about Christ. Two doc- 
tors advise him to consult with Caiaphas and 
Rewfyn and Leyon. He sends Arfexe for these 
men. 

Caiaphas and his doctors appear ; he also expresses 
his anxiety about Christ. His doctors advise him 
to consult with Annas. 

Annas' messenger enters ; in the meantime Rewfyn 
and Lej'on appear "in the place." The messenger 
speaks first to Caiaphas and then to the other 
two men. They send back word that they are 
coming to Annas' court. 

The messenger delivers this message to Annas. 
Annas goes down to meet Caiaphas and his fol- 
lowers. 

The council scene in the "myd-place." Annas wel- 
comes them. They consult and resolve that Jesus 
must be put to death. They decide to stay nine 
days to discuss by what means his death is to be 
brought about. 

Jesus speaks. "The time of mercy is at hand, etc." (26) 
He sends his disciples to "yon castle." They go, 
meet the "Burgensis" who asks why they take 
the beasts. Philip replies. They bring the two 
animals to Christ. 

"Here Christ rides out of the place," and Peter and 
John remain to preach to the people. Peter : "O, 
pepyl dyspeyryng, be glad." John corroborates 
Peter's message ; tells them Jesus is now coming 
to the city; bids them prepare to meet him. 

Four citizens prepare to meet Christ. They meet 
him and cast their garments before him. 

The children come with flowers singing, "Gloria 
Laus." 



Jesus speaks. The first four lines of this speech 
are a repetition of his earlier speech at the open- 
ing of the entry scene. 

Two blind paupers are healed. 



The Last Supper and Continuation of Council 

xxvii. Jesus proceeds on foot with his disciples. He 
weeps over Jerusalem. 

Peter and John ask Jesus where he wishes to keep 
the Passover. Jesus directs them to go to Simon. 



(27) 



42 



ESTHER L. SWENSON 



Christ and his disciples 
shall keep the 
maundy of God. 



And Judas shall sell 
Christ for thirty 
pieces of silver. 



Christ shall pray to 
God for relief. 



Judas shall kiss him to 
betray him. 

His disciples forsake 
him and let him 
stand among his foes. 



They go to Simon's house and see to the prep- 
arations. 
Christ enters, saying that he takes this way for the 
love of man. Simon welcomes him. 

Christ and the apostles enter and eat the paschal 

lamb. 
Council scene ("in cownsel-hous beforn seyd"). 

They have been unsuccessful so far ; they must 

find a better plan. Caiaphas : "Better that one 

man die, etc." Gamaliel, Rewfyn, and Leyon 

speak. 
Mary Magdalene enters, weeps at Jesus' feet. Jesus 

expels seven devils. She pours ointment on his 

feet. Judas objects. 
Jesus speaks to the disciples and to Mary of one 

who is about to betray him. They all ask. "Is 

it I?" etc. 
Judas leaves secretly; soliloquizes, resolves to go to 

the council and to betray Christ. 
He greets the doctors in council and tells his errand. 

They offer him thirty pieces of silver. Judas 

takes his leave, says he must go back to his mas- 
ter. The council breaks up. 
Jesus is talking to his disciples about the Passover. 

The sacrament of the Last Supper instituted, etc. 

Offers the bread to all the disciples including 

Judas. 
Judas goes out again; the devil meets him and 

greets him as his own, 
Jesus speaks : "Now is the Son of Man glorified." 

Peter is warned that he is to deny his master. 

The foot-washing. 
Stage-direction, "Here Jesus goeth Bethany-ward 

and his disciples following, Jesus saying." 

The Betrayal 
xxviii. Jesus speaks to his disciples on the way to the (28) 
garden. 

They enter the garden and Jesus asks Peter to stay 
with the disciples and wait for him while he goes 
to pray. He goes away three times and returns, 
finds his disciples sleeping, etc. 

The Angel ministers to him, bringing him chalice 
and host. 

Judas comes with the soldiers. They fall back 
when Jesus tells them that it is he whom they 
seek. Judas kisses Jesus. Peter strikes Malchus. 

They lead Jesus away. Gamaliel, Leyon, and Rew- 
fyn mock Jesus. 

The two Marys come in and weep. 



LUDUS COVENTRIAE 



43 



Trial, Part I, Herod, Trial before Caiaphas, Peter's Denial 

Doctors' Prologue. Expositor says, "To the people (29) 
unlearned I stand as a teacher, and to the learned 
as a preacher, etc." The apostles appear in pro- 
cession and are introduced : Peter, prince and 
president, and Andrew, these two first followed 
Christ; James and John, two luminaries, given 
by their mother to Christ in Jerusalem ; Philip, 
who converted the Samarian, converted the treas- 
urer of Queen Cabdas ; James the lesser, first par- 
taker of the ordenaunce of Cephas ; Matthew, 
apostle and evangeHst, called to the flock of ghost- 
ly conversation ; Bartholemew, who fled all carnal 
conversation; Simon Zelotes and Judas, who both 
loved our Lord ; Paul, great doctor of faith ; 
Thomas, Christ's wound was his reflection ; John 
the Baptist, highest of prophets, a voice crying in 
the desert. 



Christ shall be brought 
before Caiaphas. The 
Jews are witnesses. 

Peter's denial. 



Herod, Pilate, Annas, and Caiaphas enter and take 
their scaffolds. 

Another expositor in doctor's weeds, Contemplacio, 
enters. He hails the audience, "May the maiden's 
son preserve you, etc." We shall proceed with 
the matter that we left last year; the passion 
shall be shown. Last year we showed: (1) Jesus's 
coming to Jerusalem, (2) His maunde, (3) His 
betrayal by Judas, and capture by soldiers. 
Now he is brought before Annas and Caiaphas 
and later before Pilate, and so forth in his passion. 

Here Herod shows himself and speaks a boastful 
speech. He is a follower of Mahownde and 
hates Christians. He had John the Baptist killed 
because he baptized Christ. Sends soldiers out 
to bring in any Christian dogs they may find. 
They go. He vows to put to the most shameful 
death any who disobey him. He wishes to see 
Jesus, tells the soldiers to bring Christ before 
him, if Jesus should ever come to that country. 
The soldiers say they will begin their search to- 
morrow. 

A messenger enters "the place," crying "Tidings, (30) 
Jesus is taken, etc." He tells the story of the 
capture. 

Jesus is brought before Annas and Caiaphas. The 
Jews testify; he is questioned, beaten, etc. Caia- 
phas tears his clothes, etc. 

Peter's denial. The cock crows, Peter goes out to 
weep. 



**This number does not occur in the manuscript until after this prologue; see note on manu- 
script below. 



44 



ESTHER L. SWENSON 



Trial, Part II, The Remorse of Judas, Jesus before Pilate and before Herod 
XX. Caiaphas sends a messenger to Pilate. 



xxvii. Pilate shall sit in 
state. Jesus shall be 
brought before him 
zviih other thieves. 
Pilate's wife goes to 
rest. 

xxviii. Judas shall weep be- 
cause he has sold 
Jesus, bring his 
money back and hang 
himself. His soul is 
taken to hell. 



The messenger appears before Pilate. 



The remorse of Judas. He offers the money t6 the 
priests; it is refused; he throws it down and 
goes to hang himself. 



Jesus is led before Pilate. Annas, Caiaphas, and 
Doctors accuse him. The usual trial scene fol- 
lows. 

Pilate learns that Jesus is from Galilee and sends 
him to Herod. 

Trial before Herod. Herod appears in state. He 
questions Jesus, seeks to induce him to speak, but 
without success. He orders Jesus clad in fool's 
garments after he has been beaten ; sends him 
back to Pilate. 

"Here enteryth Satan into the place in the most 
orryble wyse, and qwyl that he pleyth, thei xal 
don on Jhesus clothis and overest a whyte clothe, 
and ledyn hym abowth the place, and than to 
Pylat, be the tyme that hese wyf hath pleyd." 

Trial, Part III, Pilate's Wife's Dream and the C ondemnation 

xxxi. Satan boasts of his power, but is troubled be- 
cause he has failed in his attempt to tempt Christ 
He is still angry for the rebuke that Jesus gave 
him in the wilderness. He vows that he will 
have him crucified and brought to hell. He 
speaks to his vassals in hell, tells them to forge 
some particularly strong chains to bind Christ. 
The demons object, they are afraid to have Jesus 
in hell. Satan considers that it might possibly be 
dangerous to bring him there, so he decides to go 
to Pilate's wife. 
Here the devil goes to Pilate's wife, "and he xal no 
dene make," but after he is come in, she shall 
make a "rewly" noise and run to the scaffold 
where Pilate is "like a mad woman." 



Pilate's wife shall ap- 
pear sleeping, and the 
devil shall appear to 
her and attempt to 
save Christ's life. 

She sends to Pilate and 
begs him not to con- 
demn Christ. 

Then Pilate is busy and 
right "blyflF." 



(31) 



She urges Pilate to befriend Jesus. Satan told her 
that he who condemns Jesus shall be damned. 

Pilate thanks her and sends her back. 



LUDUS COVENTRIAE 45 

Pilate gives counsel to The doctors bring Jesus back to Pilate. He seeks (32) 

save Christ's life; but to persuade them to let Jesus go. Offers to set 

the Jews demand his free Barabas or Jesus. Examines Jesus alone, 

death and the release Annas and Caiaphas threaten to bring the matter 

of Barabas. before Caesar. 

Sentence passed. Jesus, the two thieves, and Bara- 
bas before the bar. Barabas is freed-; Jesus and 
thieves condemned to be beaten and crucified. 
The two thieves are Dysmas and Jesmas (Dimas 
and Gestas). 
A stage-direction for the beating and the crowning 
with thorns as well as for the weeping of the 
women. 



The Crucifixion 

XXX. xxxii. Two women weep for Jesus ; he speaks to them, 

"Daughters of Jerusalem, etc." 
Simon appears and is forced to carry the cross. 
Veronica wipes Jesus' face with her kerchief, 
Jesus blesses her and gives magic power to the 
kerchief. 
They shall beat Christ Crucifixion proper, realistic description of the nail- 

and nail him upon a ing to the cross, etc. They crucify the two thieves. 

tree, between two 
thieves. 

John and the three Marys come in and mourn at 
the cross. 
Christ speaks seven "Forgive them, Father." 

words on the cross. Dysmas is forgiven. 

Jesus says to his mother, "Woman, behold thy son, 

etc." 
Pilate and the high priests come in. Pilate's in- 
scription. 
Jesus : "Eloi eloi, etc." 
"I thirst, etc." 
"Into Thy hands, etc." 
"It is finished." 
John comforts Mary Mary and John leave the cross and go to the 

and takes her to the Temple. 

Temple. 

The Harrowing of Hell 

xxxi. Longinus episode. A xxxiii. ^^^> 

spear pierced Christ's 
heart and Longinus 
was healed, (See 
next play.) 
Christ's soul goes to Jesus speaks : "All mankind in heart be glad, etc." 

hell and overcomes He tells the story of his crucifixion and says he 

the fiend. shall rise again. 



46 



ESTHER L. SWENSON 



Anima : "Against me it were but foolish to hold 

portas, etc." 
Belial: "Out and harrow." 
Anima Christi goes to hell and says, "Attollite 

out, etc." 



Joseph and Nicodemus 
ask Pilate for Christ's 
bodv. He consents. 



Burial and the Setting of the Watch 

xxxiv. The Centurion, two other soldiers, and Nico- (34) 
demus are at the cross. They are convinced of 
Christ's divinity. 

Joseph of Arimathea goes to Pilate and asks per- 
mission to bury Jesus. The request is granted and 
Pilate sends two soldiers with Joseph to see if 
Jesus is really dead. 

Longinus episode : At the cross the soldiers see 
Longinus and force him to pierce Christ's side. 
The blood runs over his hands ; he wipes his 
eyes and is healed. He worships Christ. (See 
Prologue, section number xxxi.) 

Joseph and Nicodemus take the body from the 
cross. They lay the body in Mary's lap. She 
weeps over her son. 

They place liim in the grave and place a stone be- 
fore it. 

Mary is left at the tomb. 



The Jews ask for a 

watch. 
Pilate sends four 

knights to guard the 

tomb. 



But Christ's body shall 
rise from the grave 
nevertheless and 

frighten the watch. 
(See next play.) 



Caiaphas asks Pilate to place a watch at the tomb. 

Pilate calls four soldiers and sends them to the 
grave. They boast of their courage. 

Pilate sets his seal on the stone. 

Pilate, Annas, and Caiaphas go to their scafifolds, 

and the soldiers are left at the tomb. They take 

their places and then fall asleep. 
"Tunc dormient milites et veniet Anima Christi 

de inferno, cum Adam et Eva, Abraham, John 

Baptist, et aliis." 



(35) 



Harrowing of Hell and Report of the Watch 



xxxiii. Christ shall bring 
his friends from hell 
to paradise. 



The soul then goes to 
the tomb and enters 
the body. 



XXXV. Anima speaks : Come forth, Adam and Eve, 
etc." 

Adam, Eve, John the Baptist, and Abraham in turn 

express their gratitude. 
Anima then binds the devil and Belial laments. 
"Tunc transit anima Christi ad resuscitandum 

corpus, quo resuscitato, dicat Jesus : 'Harde gatys 

have I gon, etc' " 



LUDUS COVENTRIAE 



A7 



Then he goes to his 
mother in the Tem- 
ple to comfort her. 
She rejoices. 



Jesus salutes his mother : 
etc." Mary rejoices. 



"Salve, sancta parens, 



The watch awakens, is frightened, reports to Pilate 
and is bribed. (See Prologue xxxii.) 



xxxiv. The three Marys 
seek the tomb. 
The Angel tells them 
Christ is risen. 

They go and tell the 
news to the disciples. 

Peter and John run to 
the grave and find 
that Christ is not 
there. 



The Three Marys 

xxxvi. Mary Magdalene, Mary Jacobi, Mary Salome (^") 
talk to each other on the way to the grave. 

Mary Magdalene looks into the grave and finds 
Jesus gone. The Angel tells them he is risen 
and bids them bring the news to the apostles. 

Mary Magdalene and Mary Jacobi tell Peter and the 
other disciples. 

Peter and John run to the grave, each enters in 
turn and finds the grave clothes laid away in 
place. 

Peter speaks to all the disciples gathered together 
("omnes congregatus Thomas"). 



Mary Magdalene shall 
see Christ, whom she 
believes to be a gar- 
dener. 

When Christ calls her 
by name, she recog- 
nizes him. He bids 
her not touch him. 

Mary then goes to the 
disciples and tells 
them the truth. 



Mary Magdalene 

x.xxvii. Mary Magdalene stands outside the grave (37) 
weeping. The Angel seeks to comfort her. She 
walks away. 
Hortulanus scene. She meets Jesus and thinks he 
is the gardener.'*^ He calls her by name and she 
recognizes him. "Do not touch me, etc." Mary 
rejoices. 



She tells the disciples that she has seen Christ. 



xxxvi. Cleophas and Luke 
go to the castle 
mourning Christ. 
Christ overtakes them 



And expounds 
prophets. 



the 



Peregrini and Thomas 

xxxviii. Cleophas and Luke on the way to Emmaus are (38) 
discussing the death of Christ. 

Jesus overtakes them. They tell him the story and 

also about the women's testimony. 
Jesus expounds the prophets to them. 



<5 There is no mention of his carrying a spade or anything to symbolize a gardener. 



48 



ESTHER L. SWENSON 



He goes with them in- 
to the house, and, at 
the breaking of the 
bread, disappears. 



xxxvii. To Thomas of In- 
dia Christ shall ap- 
pear, and Thomas 
shall touch his 
wounds. 



Scene in the house. Jesus blesses the bread, etc., 
and disappears before their eyes. 



Cleophas and Luke go to the disciples and tell them 
the story. Peter rejoices and urges Thomas to 
believe. But Thomas says he will not believe 
until he has seen the wounds of Christ. 
Christ enters, "Peace be among you, etc." 
He shows Thomas his wounds and Thomas be- 
lieves and repents of his unbelief. 



One angel comes to comfort them, tells them that 
Jesus will return, etc. 



The Ascension 

xxxviii. xxxix. Jesus speaks : "Peace be with you, etc." Tells ^ ' 

Christ shall ascend into them to stay in Jerusalem. He ascends. 

heaven ; all his apos- 
tles shall be there and 
be very sad. 
Two angels shall com- 
fort them and tell 
them that he shall 
come again. 

[Peter] tells them to elect another disciple. They 
draw lots and Matthew is chosen. 

Pentecost 

xxxix. The apostles were xl. The apostles are kneeling and praying in Jerusalem. (40 
gathered in Jerusa- 
lem, praying. 
The Holy Ghost came The spirit descends upon them, "Et omnes osculant 

upon them ; they terram." 

spoke in all tongues. 

The Jews mock them and Peter gives his defense. 
And later they departed. 



The Assumption of the Virgin 

xli. "Ad mea facta pater assit Deus et sua mater." 

Doctor says that St. John has written of this As- 
sumption in a book called the Apocrypha. He 
tells the story of Mary's life; how at fourteen, 
she conceived Christ, lived with him for thirty- 
three years, and after his death twelve years ; so 
that now she was three-score years. "Legenda 
Sanctorum" authorizes this truly. She lived in 
Sion after her Son's ascension and visited all the 
places where Christ had been ; Jordan, where he 
was baptized, the place where he was captured, 
and where he was buried and, finally, where he 
ascended. 



(41) 



LUDUS COVENTRIAE 49 

Upon inquiry the Episcopus learns that while there 
is comparative peace in the land since Jesus was 
slain, his mother is still living and has a number 
of followers who travel about the country preach- 
ing that Jesus is still living. They do not dare 
to put these people to death, for fear that the 
commons will rise. But they resolve at Mary's 
death to burn her body and to slay the apostles. 

Mary in the Temple prays that she may be delivered 
from this life. Sapientia hears her prayer, sends 
an angel down to tell his mother that in three 
days she shall ascend to the presence of God. 
Mary asks that the apostles may be present when 
she dies and that she may not see the fiend. The 
Angel ascends. Mary tells her two maidens ; she 
goes to her house. 

Suddenly John appears at Mary's house, carried 
there in a cloud. Mary tells John how the Jews 
have planned to burn her body and asks him to 
prevent it. 

Here suddenly all the apostles appear before the 
gates. (The stage-direction says all the apostles; 
but Peter and Paul are the only ones who take 
any part in the conversation or action. These 
two also come in clouds.) They meet John and 
he explains to them why they were brought there. 

Mary's deathbed. Each apostle lights a candle and 
watches at the bedside. Jesus descends to comfort 
his mother, accompanied by a heavenly choir. 
Mary dies while the choir sings. Two virgins 
care for the body. 

Funeral procession. Peter, Paul, and John carry 
the bier. Chorus of angels sings. Peter : Exiit 
Israel de Egipto. Apostoli : "Facta est Judea 
sanctificatio ejus, etc." 

The Jewish leaders learn that Mary is being buried. 
Three men are sent to capture her body. They 
attack the apostles but are miraculously stricken 
with some disease and two of them run away. 
One of them makes bold to touch the bier and his 
hand becomes fastened to it. He prays Peter to 
help him. Peter bids him believe and kneel before 
the bier. He does this and is healed. Peter gives 
him a palm and tells him to take this and preach 
repentance to the other Jews. 

They place the body in the tomb and have a service 
there. 

The Jewish princeps who has been healed holds his 
palm up before the other Jews and bids them be- 
lieve that they may be made well. One of them 
touches the palm and is cured. But the other 



50 ESTHER L. SWENSON 

refuses to forsake the law, and the devils come 
and carry him off to hell. 
Jesus and the angels descend to the apostles. Mary's 
spirit again enters the body and they ascend to- 
gether. Jesus crowns her queen of heaven and 
mother of mercy. 

The Judgment 

xl. xlii. Jesus descends with Michael and Gabriel and the (42) 

two angels summon men to judgment. 
The earth shall quake "Omnes resurgentes subtus terram clamavit 'Ha ! 

and graves open. a ! a !' Deinde surgentes dicat, 'ha ! a ! a !' " 

Dead men shall an- 
swer before God's 
face. 

All the demons call "Harrow and owt." 
Deus to the blessed: "Venite benedicti." Peter 
opens the gates of heaven and the souls of the 
saved enter. 
"Whoso to God has The souls of the damned cry for mercy, the demons 

been unkind. Friend- accuse them. Deus : "To hungry and thirsty, 

ship there shall not etc." 

find." 

The devils go on accusing and the "dampnandi" ask 

for mercy. 
Deus : 



The play is incomplete. 

In the fourth division of the cycle we have a great number of complica- 
tions and evidence of late extraneous influence, somewhat analogous to those 
found in the Nativity plays. In the latter group there seemed to be a 
distinct unit, or group of plays, concerning the life of the Virgin, that had 
been incorporated, more or less completely, into the cycle. So here we see 
the influence of a Passion play, similar probably to those that often existed 
in the southern part of England. It is doubtful, however, whether this play 
was incorporated as a whole. The actual incidents as we now find them in 
the plays correspond fairly well with the general Prologue, and the additions 
seem to be more in the nature of elaborate processions and prologues. So 
that it is more probable that what we have in this part of the cycle is 
a working over into another form, after the pattern of some Passion play, of 
materials already present. 

In the play numbered 26 (Halliwell 25), Lucifer appears and recites a 
long prologue in which he introduces himself and tells the story of his fall, 
and how now he is seeking to bring about the ruin of Christ. He ends with 
a detailed description of his costume. This is just such a prologue as was 



LUDUS COVENTRIAE 51 

often used to introduce Passion plays on the continent. Then follow the 
plays of the Council and Entry, the Last Supper, the Betrayal and Cap- 
ture; after which comes, in the twenty-ninth play, another long prologue 
scene with doctors and expositors. At the end of this prologue scene, an 
expositor in doctor's weeds, Contemplacio by name, enters and says that they 
will now continue where they left of? last year. He then mentions as plays 
performed last year, the Entry, the Maundy, the Betrayal and Capture, which 
is exactly what was covered since Lucifer's prologue. He goes on to say 
that now they will show how he was brought before Annas and Caiaphas and 
later before Pilate and so forth in his Passion. I think it impossible that 
this division into two parts should refer to the whole cycle, which would 
then be very unevenly divided ; but rather that this expositor's speech be- 
longed to the Passion play only. It certainly indicates, for this part of the 
cycle, an independent use at some time as a Passion play. The name Con- 
templacio may have been introduced by the scribe when he was copying, 
in an attempt to make this part of the cycle seem consistent with the Nativity 
plays. 

The part of our cycle, covering the action prescribed by Contemplacio, 
presents a number of noteworthy differences from the rest of the cycle ; such 
as the widespread use of the tumbling meter, and stage-directions that indi- 
cate the use of a fixed stage and are peculiarly explicit in matters of costume 
and properties. These directions are entirely in English down to the scene of 
Peter's denial. In this and a few of the following scenes certain traditional 
directions, such as "Et cantabit gallus," are written in Latin, but English 
continues to be used prevailingly in the stage-directions to the end of the play 
of the Burial and the Setting of the Watch. From this point on, with but one 
single exception, the directions are entirely in Latin and are in the same sim- 
ple form that we have found before in the plays covering Old Testament sub- 
jects, and the life of Christ up to the Passion. The use of the tumbling 
meter, with but one exception, also ends at this point. Moreover, in the 
manuscript these plays follow immediately upon one another without any 
blank spaces between them, except at the point that Contemplacio marks 
as the division in the Passion play, until the end of the play of the Appear- 
ance to Mary Magdalene. After that the blank spaces are left regularly 
at the end of each play as they have been in the other parts of the cycle that 
have appeared to be simple and unmodified. 

Thus the meter and the stage-directions, as well as the fact that Con- 
templacio speaks only of the passion of Christ, and not of the resurrection, 
would seem to indicate that foreign influence ends with the play of the 
Burial and the Setting of the Watch ; whereas the appearance of the manu- 
script might point to the Appearance to Mary Magdalene as the end. 

Before proceeding to a discussion of individual plays it may be well to 



52 



ESTHER L. SWENSON 



indicate in an abbreviated form the variation of Halliwell's division of the 
plays from that of the manuscript. I have followed the manuscript. 

Manuscript Halliwell 



26 



27 



28 



29 



30 



31 



32 



Demon Prologue 
Council of the Jews 



The Entry 



Jesus Weeping over Jerusalem 



The Last Supper and Continuation of Council 



The Betrayal and Capture 



The Doctors' Prologue 
Herod 



Trial before Caiaplias 
Peter's Denial 



Remorse of Judas 
Jesus before Pilate 
Jesus before Herod 



Pilate's Wife's Droai 



The Second Trial before Pilate 



Weeping of the Women and Veronica 
Crucifixion 



25 



26 



27 



28 



29 



30 



31 



32 



LUDUS COVENTRIAE 



53 



Manuscript 



Haluwell 



33 



34 



Harrowing of Hell I 



Burial and Longinus 



33 



34 



Setting of the Watch 



35 



36 



37 



38 



Harrowing of Hell H 

Jesus Hails His Mother 

Report of the Watch 



35 



The Three Marys 



Mary Mngdalene 



Peregrini and the Incredulity of Thomas 



36 



37 



38 



The Council and Entry 

The Prologue for this play provides for nothing more than Palm Sunday 
and the children, whereas the play presents in addition the introductory 
speeches of Lucifer and John the Baptist, the convening of the council, 
Peter's and John's sermons to the Jews, and the healing of the two blind men. 
On folio 142b of the manuscript, immediately after the council scene, 
appears this direction: "Here enteryth the apostyl Petyr and John the 
evangelist with him, Peter seyng." This and the following speech of Peter's 
is crossed out, and we have instead a speech by Jesus, in which he addresses 
himself first to the Jews, and then sends his disciples into the city, after 
which he leaves. When Christ has left, Peter and John begin to preach to 
the people, and here we have the speech by Peter that had been crossed out 
before. The direction, however, is not repeated. This may indicate, it seems 
to me, that in this place we had originally a very simple play of the entry, 
which began with Peter's speech and included simply the homage of the four 
citizens and the songs of the children. In this connection it is interesting to 
note that in Jesus' speech at the end of the play, just before the healing of 
the two blind men,** the first four lines are a repetition of his first speech.*^ 

"eHalliwell, p. 256. 



54 ESTHER L. SWENSON 

This would leave the council scene, Jesus' two speeches, and the healing of 
the two blind men to be considered as later additions to the cycle. 

The play is written largely in single and double quatrains, the latter pre- 
vailing. The tumbling measure also makes its frequent appearance, notably i 
in the speeches of Demon, John the Baptist, and in Annas' first speech as | 
well as those of his two doctors (to the top of page 246 in Halliwell). Two 
stanzas (on pages 246 and 247) where Caiaphas is speaking, just before the 
messenger from Annas appears, and also the last three stanzas of Peter's 
speech,*^ are also written in the tumbling verse. 

The prologue stanza makes its appearance in the scene where Jesus asks 
his disciples to go into the city and in the conversation with the Burgensis, 
with the exception that the first four lines of Jesus' speech, which are 
repeated later, form a separate quatrain. 

The following stage-direction from this play will serve to illustrate the \ 

peculiarities of the directions in this part of the cycle: "Here xal Annas ) 

shewyn hymself in his stage, be seyn after a busshop of the hoold lawe, in ) 

a skarlet gowne, and over that a blew tabbard furryd with whyte, and a ; 

mytere on his hed, after the hoold lawe; ij. doctorys stondyng by h3'm in 
furryd hodys, and on beforn hem with his stafif of astat, and eche of hem 
on here hedys a furryd cappe, with a gret knop in the crowne, and on 
stondyng beforn as a Sarazyn, the wiche xal be his masangere."*® This 
careful attention to the position and costumes of the characters is entirely 
foreign to the simple plays that precede this group. The elaborateness of the 
stage properties called for, the frequent mentions of "the place" indicate a 
fixed stage for this group of plays. Thus while the messenger is speaking 
to Caiaphas in his scaffold, Rewfyn and Leyon appear in "the place." And 
later "the buskopys with here clerkes and the Phariseus mett, in the myd 
place, and ther xal be a lytil oratory with stolys and cusshonys clenly beseyn, 
lyche as it were a cownsel-hous."^" A little while later, after Christ has 
made his speech to the Jews, we are told that he rides out of "the place," etc. 
I have also noticed that, beginning with the direction concerning the citizens' 
homage to Jesus,^^ we have the frequent substitution of qw for wh in such 
words as qzuan and qzvat.^~ 

The Last Supper and Continuation of Council 

This play also appears to have been very much modified. The Prologue 
provides for the Supper and for the selling of Christ by Judas, but not for 
the elaborate council scene which we find here. This, I think, must have 
been a part of the Passion play. It seems probable that the original play 



play. 



47 Halliwell, p. 252. -IS Halliwell, p. 254. 49 Halliwell, p. 244. 

BO Halliwell, p. 249. si Halliwell, p. 256. 

62 In the manuscript the name Wyllum Dere is written in the margin of the first page of thii 



LUDUS COVENTRIAE 55 

included simply the scene of the Supper and Judas' withdrawal, to meet 
either with the Jews or, possibly, the devil. Or it may be that he simply 
soliloquized. It is interesting to note that the stage-direction for the Demon's 
speech^^ states that this scene may be included or omitted at the pleasure of 
the performers. 

That the Mary Magdalene episode is a later addition the manuscript 
indicates clearly. On folio 148b the direction, "Here Judas Caryoth comyth 
into the place,"^* has been crossed out, also the name Jesus as the next 
speaker. At the bottom of the page three lines, "as a cursyd," "my herte is 
ryth," and "now cowntyrfetyd I have," have been written and crossed out. 
The first of these lines is the opening line of Mary's speech f^ the second is 
the first line of Christ's speech after the Mary Magdalene episode,^® intro- 
ducing the scene where Jesus says one of his disciples shall betray him ; the 
third line is the opening line of Judas' speech, which follows the scene be- 
tween Jesus and his disciples." Evidently the direction, "Here Judas goth 
into the place," which is crossed out in the manuscript, though printed by 
Halliwell (p. 263), is the same as that which precedes this last-mentioned 
speech of Judas. ^^ This confusion would seem to me to indicate that the 
scribe had at first intended to introduce the scene where Judas sells Christ 
to the doctors, immediately after Annas' last speech,^® and thus make of the 
council one continuous scene. Then later it seems that he thought to intro- 
duce the scene between Jesus and his disciples®** at this point, but finally 
decided to introduce the Mary Magdalene episode. This episode occupies 
folios 149 and 149b in the manuscript, and the handwriting seems to indicate 
that it was written by the same scribe, but at a different time and with a 
different pen. It is much more closely written. Perhaps this indicates that 
at first the scene between Jesus and his disciples followed Annas' speech 
(p. 263) and that the story of Mary was written in at a later time on a blank 
page that had been left there.®* 

Metrically the play presents two main forms. The Mary Magdalene 
episode is in the prologue stanza, whereas the greater part of the play is in 
double quatrains. The scene between Jesus and his disciples, mentioned 
above, as well as the one where he establishes the sacrament of the Lord's 
Supper (pp. 270-274), are in the tumbling meter, which may point to a later 
origin for these parts. There are also three cases of couplets in the play 
(pp. 274, 276). 



BS Halliwell, p. 275. •'* Halliwell, p. 263. 55 Halliwell, p. 263. 

58 Halliwell, p. 265. 57 Halliwell, p. 267. 58 Halliwell, p. 267. 

59 Halliwell, p. 263. 60 Halliwell, pp. 265-267. . 

«i The name JoLn Holland occurs four times in this section of the manuscript on folios i51d, 
152b, lS3b, and 155b. The handwriting resembles that of the scribe. 



56 ESTHER L. SWENSON 

The Betrayal 

The preceding- play ends with the direction, "Here Jhesus goth to Betany- 
ward, and his dyscipulys folwyng with sad contenawns, Jhesus seyng," and 
this play opens with Jesus' speech on the way to the garden. Either this 
direction ought to be transferred to this play, or the speech belongs to the 
play of the Last Supper. However, if we conceive these plays to have been 
performed on a stationary stage, considerations of this kind are of very little 
importance.^^ 

The Angel's ministering to Jesus is not mentioned in the Prologue. His 
bringing a chalice and the host is a theological touch. Moreover, the Pro- 
logue says that Christ's disciples forsake him, but there is no direction in the 
play to that effect. The laments of the Marys are also omitted from the 
Prologue ; and these laments are also written in the tumbling meter, whereas 
the rest of the play is in simple single and double quatrain stanzas. 

Trial I (Herod, Trial before Caiaphas and Peter's Denial) 

The play of the Betrayal ends on folio 162 of the manuscript and folio 
162b is blank. The prologue of the doctors is written in on ff. 163 and 
163b in a different hand ; then, except for a few scribbles, ff. 164 and 164b 
are blank. So that the next play does not actually begin before folio 165, 
although the doctors' prologue does occur before; nor does the number 29 
appear before this point. After this there are no blank spaces in the manu- 
script until the end of the play of Christ's Appearance to Mary Magdalene. 
The hand in which Contemplacio's speech is written seems to differ both 
from that of the usual scribe and also from that of the doctors' prologue. 

The general Prologue for this play promises nothing more than a trial 
before Caiaphas and Peter's denial, and these portions of the play are written 
in simple meters. The actual trial before Caiaphas®^ is in simple quatrains, 
with a good deal of confusion of rhyme due to the short speeches in the 
buffeting scenes, etc. ; the scene of Peter's denial is in couplets, ending in 
a simple quatrain. But the other parts of the play, Contemplacio's speech, 
the speeches of Herod and the soldiers, the messenger's tidings to Annas, 
Annas' greeting of Jesus, and Peter's lament are written almost entirely in 
tumbling quatrains. Thus it seems probable that all of the play except the 
actual trial before Caiaphas and Peter's denial is late. 

The appearance of the stage-directions would also seem to support such 
a theory. In the first part of the play we find the same elaborate sort of 
directions that characterize this part of the cycle : "What tyme that pro- 
cessyon is enteryd into the place, and the Herowdys takyn his schaffalde, 

62 Hohlfeld also calls attention to this fact, Die Kollektivmisterien, Anglia, xi, p. 234. 
••"• Halliwell, pp. 295-297. 



LUDUS COVENTRIAE 57 

and Pylat and Annas and Cayphas here schaffaldys ; also than come ther an 
exposytour, in doctorys wede, thus seyng." But with the buffeting scenes in 
the Trial before Caiaphas and in Peter's Denial we have the occasional use 
of simple Latin stage-directions. This is the first appearance of Latin direc- 
tions since the Lazarus play. 

Trial II (Remorse of Judas, Jesus before Pilate and Herod) 

This play, as it now stands, seems to be a reworking of what was in the 
cycle originally two plays, with some introduction of new material. If the 
Remorse of Judas was a separate play, it is probable that it was presented 
as a sort of interlude between the two trials before Pilate. Strangely enough 
the Prologue makes no mention of a trial before Herod. Combining this 
with the fact that the parts of the preceding play concerning Herod were also 
omitted from the Prologue, it would seem that Herod was introduced into 
this part of the cycle at the time of revision. 

In connection with the first trial before Pilate, the Prologue states that 
Christ shall be tried together with thieves. But the thieves do not actually 
appear until the second trial before Pilate. There, however, they are omitted 
from the Prologue. There are also in this play two other minor points of 
disagreement between Prologue and plays. The former provides that Pilate's 
wife shall go to rest, a thing which does not occur in the play ; also, the play 
as it now stands presents no scene where the devil carries Judas off to hell, 
but simply states that he goes to hang himself. 

The meter of the play as a whole is very simple, largely simple quatrains 
with an occasional double quatrain. A part of the scene where Pilate ques- 
tions Jesus^* is written in couplets. The tumbling meter makes its appear- 
ance only in the first part of the play where Caiaphas calls the messenger 
and the messenger delivers his message first to Pilate and then to Caiaphas. 

The last stage-direction in the play indicates beyond any doubt that these 
plays were presented on a fixed stage : "Here enteryth Satan into the place 
in the most orryble wyse, and qwyl that he pleyth, thei xal don on Jhesus 
clothis and overest a whyte clothe, and leydyn hym abowth the place and 
than to Pylat, be the tyme that hese wyff hath pleyd." This play contains 
one Latin stage-direction. 

Trial III (Pilate's Wife's Dream and the Condemnation) 

Satan's prologue, which is not provided for in the general Prologue, and 
is also written in the tumbling meter, probably does not belong to the original 
cycle. The scene of the council in hell is also omitted from the Prologue 

eiHalliwell, p. 301. 



58 ESTHER L. SWENSON 

and would seem to belong to a later period. It is, however, written in simple 
quatrains, which is the prevailing meter of the play. With the exception, 
noted before, that the thieves, placed by the Prologue in the preceding play, 
actually appear here, the rest of the action is entirely consistent with the 
Prologue and probably represents an early stage of the cycle. 

This play also employs a number of couplets in addition to the prevailing 
simple quatrains. "^^ Here also we have the occasional appearance of simple 
Latin stage-directions. 

The Crucifixion 

Jesus' speech to the Jewish women, "Daughters of Jerusalem, etc.," is 
written in tumbling meter, and probably belongs to a later period than that 
represented by the Prologue. Although the laments of the women, Simon's 
carrying of the cross, and the Veronica episode are written in simple quat- 
rains, their omission from the Prologue may indicate that they were later 
borrowings into the cycle. The Veronica story occurs only in this and the 
York cycles ; it comes from a legendary source, such as would probably not 
have been used in this cycle at the time of the writing of the Prologue. The 
forgiving of Dysmas and Pilate's inscription are also omitted from the 
Prologue, and the latter incident is introduced by just such a stage-direction 
as we believe is characteristic of the Passion play. 

After Pilate has gone back to his scaffold we have the reappearance of 
the ballad stanza aaabcccb, which is continued to the end of this play and 
throughout the next. 

The Harrozving of Hell I 

Although the one stage-direction here is in English, the plav is ex- 
tremely simple and seems to be in its original form. The second scene of the 
Harrowing of Hell (a part of the Resurrection play) is also written in the 
ballad meter, and the action follows nnmediately upon that of the first Har- 
rowing of Hell, as if the two had at one time been a single play. However, 
that must have been before the Prologue was written, for that provides for 
a division just as we find it here. 

There seem to be no indications of any influence from the Passion play 
in either of these two scenes. But there may have been some change in the 
order of the incidents in this part of the cycle. In the Prologue the Longinus 
story is placed with the first Harrowing of Hell, the two constituting a sep- 
arate pageant, whereas as the cycle now stands, the first Harrowing of Hell 
stands alone, and the Longinus episode is placed with the play of the Burial. 

«5HalIiwelI, pp. 312, 313, 316. 



LUDUS COVENTRIAE 59 

The Burial and the Setting of the Watch 

Although this play corresponds fairly well, as far as incidents are con- 
cerned, with the general Prologue, it presents some little evidence of for- 
eign influence in that both English stage-directions and the tumbling meter 
are used to some extent. This meter makes its appearance in the conversa- 
tion of the Centurion and the other two soldiers at the cross. The other 
scenes of the play are written either in simple quatrains or in the ballad 
stanza. Nicodemus''*^ speaks one stanza in the ballad strophe. The rest of the 
burial scene and the first part of the Setting of the Watch, are in quatrains ; 
but beginning with Afifraunt's speech to Pilate on the way to the tomb, the 
ballad measure is again employed. In the first part of this last scene the 
lines are generally four feet long, but the last stanza of Pilate's speech and 
the conversation of the soldiers at the grave are in the very short line ballad 
stanza, often running into the form a a b c c b. 

This play marks the end of the influence of the Passion play. The fol- 
lowing plays, though not always corresponding in every detail with the Pro- 
logue, are, with the exception of the play of the Assumption of the Virgin, 
very simple. There is only one further instance (in the play of Thomas) of 
the use of the tumbling meter; and only one stage-direction in English (in 
the play of Mary Magdalene) throughout the rest of the cycle. The stage- 
directions are again simple, as they were in the first part of the cycle, and 
there is no further mention of "the place." The play of Mary Magdalene 
ends with an "Explicit apparicio Mariae Magdalen," and each succeeding 
play, except the Assumption of the Virgin, begins with a direction some- 
what in the nature of an "Incipit." The play of Pentecost also ends with 
an "Amen." 

Resurrection and Awakening of the Watch 

At the end of the Crucifixion a stage-direction, in agreement with the 
Prologue, states that Mary, the mother of Jesus, goes to the Temple. But in 
the play of the Burial she is present and at the end is said to be left with the 
other Marys at the tomb. The Prologue for the Burial makes no pro- 
vision for this, but states in the section devoted to the play of the Resurrec- 
tion, that Christ goes to the Temple to find his mother ; whereas in the play 
of the Resurrection Christ seems to find his mother at the tomb. Thus the 
action in the Prologue is consistent with itself and with the direction at the 
end of the play of the Crucifixion, whereas the action that follows this direc- 
tion in the plays is not consistent. It is probable that in the cycle, at the time 
which the Prologue represents, Mary went to the Temple after the cruci- 
fixion and remained there to meet Christ after his resurrection ; whereas in 

66Halliwell, p. 331. 



60 ESTHER L. SWENSON 

some other play, which has influenced this cycle, the Marys were left at the 
tomb after the burial and remained there to be ready for the play of Christ's 
Appearance to the Three Marys. In this latter play, the play of the Three 
Marys probably stood for the Resurrection and there probably was no 
special appearance to the Virgin Mary. In this connection it is interesting 
to note that Virgin Mary is not one of the three women who go to the tomb, 
according to the direction at the beginning of the play of the Three Marys. 
"Hie venient ad sepulchrum Maria Magdalene, Maria Jacobi, et Maria Sa- 
lome, etc." The direction first quoted is also inconsistent with that at the 
end of the Burial referred to above: "Here the princes xal do reverens to 
oure Lady, and gon here way, and leve the Maryes at the sepulchre." If our 
theory is correct, the direction stating that the three Marys go to the grave 
belongs to the second play which we believe has influenced the cycle. 

Another inconsistency between Prologue and cycle appears in that the 
former does not specifically mention the awakening of the watch, although 
it does seem to imply some such scene in the section devoted to the preceding 
play, when in providing for the setting of the watch, it suggests that at the 
resurrection Christ shall frighten the soldiers. Possibly in the old cycle this 
scene occurred in the same pageant with the setting of the watch. 

The Remaining Plays of the Cycle 

The play of the Journey to Emmaus is a very simple biblical play and 
agrees with the Prologue with the exception that the Prologue treats the 
story of Thomas as a separate pageant. The use of the tumbling meter in 
this second part of the play would seem to be very significant in the light of 
this inconsistency. It looks as if at the time of the revising of the cycle the 
original Thomas play had been rewritten in this late meter and appended to 
the regular Peregrini play. 

In the Ascension play one angel only appears ; whereas the Prologue 
states that there shall be two. At the end of the play Peter (whose name 
is omitted from the manuscript and also from Halli well's edition) makes a 
speech to the disciples telling them to elect another apostle, which is not 
included in the Prologue but is consistent with the Bible story .^^ 

The play of Pentecost is remarkably short consisting of only thirty-nine 
lines. It would almost seem that it, like the Judgment play, must be a frag- 
ment, though there is no indication of this in the manuscript, as in the case 
of the latter play. In the Judgment play we have at the end the name "Deus" 
indicated as the next speaker, but no speech is provided for him. 

The Assumption of the Virgin is not provided for in the Prologue and is 
written in a different hand from that of the rest of the cycle. It is different 

*^ Faike, Die Quellen des sog. Liidus Coventriae, also calls attention to the omission of Peter's 
name. 



LUDUS COVENTRIAE 61 

in tone and much more elaborate than any of the other plays. Directions 
such as the following : "Hie cantabunt org,""^ and "Et hie ascendent in 
coelum cantantibus organis,"®^ may be thought to indicate that this play was 
at some time performed in a church. 

Metrically this play is very much confused. There are a number of 
passages in the prologue stanza, also a number of quatrains. Some of these 
quatrains are double, thus, abababab, and a number of them also begin 
with a couplet, aabababab. Five stanzas scattered through the play 
seem to show a confusion of quatrains with the ballad stanza, a a a b a b- 
a b a b.^° The play shows throughout, however, longer lines than the rest 
of the cycle. 

With the exception of this play and the Thomas scene, noted before, this 
last part of the cycle is very simple metrically, presenting three main forms 
of meter, the ballad stanza, the double quatrain, and the prologue stanza. 
The Resurrection and the Three Marys down to Magdalene's speech to the 
apostles are in the ballad stanza. Beginning with this speech and throughout 
the next two plays as far as the scene of the Incredulity of Thomas the 
simple double quatrain form is employed, with an occasional single quatrain 
in the Appearance to Mary Magdalene. The Thomas scene is in tumbling 
quatrains. The remaining three plays are in the prologue stanza. In the 
Ascension and Pentecost the form of the stanza has been slightly changed 
from ababababcdddc to ababbcbcdeeed, but the Judgment 
play resumes the old form. 

CONCLUSION 

It appears, then, from our study that the Prologue provides for the fol- 
lowing incidents : 

1. Creation of Angels and Fall of Lucifer 

2. Creation and Fall of Man 

3. Cain and Abel 

4. Noah and the Flood 

5. Abraham and Isaac 

6. Moses and the Laws 

7. Prophets (prophecies of a queen) 

8. Mary's Betrothal (in two parts) 

9. Salutation 

10. Joseph's Trouble about Mary 

11. The Trial of Joseph and Mary 

(This section is a simple quatrain and probably not a part of the original 
prologue.) 

eSHalliwell, p. 393. G9 Halliwell, p. 400. 10 Halliwell, pp. 387, 391, 392. 



62 ESTHER L. SJVENSON 

12. Joseph and the Midwives 
(Also a quatrain.) 

13. The Adoration of the Shepherds 

14. The Adoration of the Magi 

15. Slaughter of the Innocents (including a Flight into Egypt) 

16. The Death of Herod 

17. Christ and the Doctors 

18. The Baptism of Christ 

19. The Temptation (including a Council in Hell) 

20. The Woman Taken in Adultery 

21. The Resurrection of Lazarus 

22. The Entry into Jerusalem 

23. The Last Supper (including Judas' Selling of Christ) 

24. The Betrayal 

25. Christ before Caiaphas (including Peter's Denial) 

26. Christ before Pilate 

27. The Remorse of Judas 

28. Pilate's Wife's Dream and the Second Trial before Pilate 

29. The Crucifixion 

30. Longinus and the First Harrowing of Hell 

31. Burial and Setting of the Watch 

32. Second Harrowing of Hell and Christ's Salutation to His Mother (i. e., 

The Resurrection) 

33. The Three Marys {Quern Quaeritis) 

34. Mary Magdalene (Hortulanus) 

35. Cleophas and Luke (Peregrini) 

36. Thomas of India ; 
Z7. The Ascension ^ 

38. Pentecost 

39. Doomsday 

Mr. E. N. S. Thompson in an article on Ludus Coventriae''^ expresses the 
opinion that this Prologue is not an integral part of the cycle, but is ante- 
dated by the plays. This view, however, I can not agree with. The agree- 
ment of the Prologue and the cycle in all essential scenes, and in such 
peculiarities as (1) the emphasis on the Virgin in the Prophecies, (2) the 
prefixing of a council in hell to the regular Temptation play, (3) the division 
of the Harrowing of Hell into two scenes, (4) the fact that Christ appears 
to his mother in the Resurrection before he is seen by the three Marys, and 
many other instances make it impossible to doubt that the Prologue belongs 

■"1 Mod. Lang. Notes, xxi. 



LUDUS COVENTRIAE 63 

to the cycle. Moreover, it will be noted that the plays here provided for, 
while sufficient for a complete cycle,^- provide only for very simple biblical 
scenes. As the Prologue now stands there are only three scenes that come 
from Apochryphal sources, namely, Mary's Betrothal, the Trial of Joseph 
and Mary, and Joseph and the Midwives, and two of these seem from metri- 
cal evidences to be later additions. So that it does not seem probable that 
the Prologue is antedated by the plays, but rather that it represents an earlier 
and more primitive form of the same cycle. Thus the theory that the Pro- 
logue represents an early stage of our plays and that those scenes which do 
not appear there are later modifications of the cycle, appears to be tenable. 

Chief among these modifications are the Virgin play in the Nativity 
group of plays, and the Passion play in the third group. In addition to 
these two main instances, it will be remembered that other scenes not men- 
tioned in the Prologue, such as the Lamech episode in the play of Noah's 
Flood, the story of the Cherry-tree in the Journey to Bethlehem, and the 
Veronica episode in the Crucifixion are to be regarded as belonging to the 
period of revision. 

To support this conclusion an examination of the metrical arrangement 
of the cycle has revealed the fact that the tumbling measure, which we 
believe to have been the meter of a redactor, is used to the greatest extent in 
the Virgin and Passion plays, and that it appears elsewhere only in such parts 
of the cycle as bear evidence of revision ; namely, the Lamech episode, the 
Cherry-tree episode, Herod's first boastful speech in the play of the Magi, 
and Christ's appearance to Thomas. 

The following table represents the general distribution of the various 
verse-forms throughout the cycle. It omits, however, the form a a b a a b- 
b c b c which appears only in the last half of Joseph's Trouble about Mary 
and in the play of the Purification. 

72 The omission of the Visit to Elizabeth, which may seem to be traditionally necessary, has 
been accounted for by the fact that the Prologue here bears evidence of' having been n-odified. 



64 



ESTHER L. SWENSON 



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LUDUS COVENTRIAE 



67 



It appears, then, that the prologue stanza is used to the exclusion of other 
forms in the beginning and end of the cycle, and also appears to some extent 
in the plays dealing with the Nativity. The plays of the Baptism and 
Temptation are written entirely in this form, but after that the stanza does 
not occur again until the Ascension. The quatrain measure is predominating 
in the main body of the cycle. The double quatrain stanza begins in the play 
of Abraham and Isaac and is used pretty generally through the Nativity 
group and the plays concerning the life of Christ from the Dispute with the 
Doctors through the first half of the Passion. Beginning with the second 
half of the Passion play the single quatrains seem to be preferred to the 
double. 

In the Old Testament plays there is only a single instance of the ballad 
measure, God's visit to the Garden of Eden in the play of the Fall of Man. 
It is not used to any extent until after the Virgin play in the Trial of Joseph 
and Mary and a few of the plays immediately following that. Then it does 
not occur again before the last part of the Crucifixion and is used generally 
in the plays dealing with the Resurrection. There is no extensive use of 
couplets ; but when they do appear, it is in scenes that it would seem must 
have been parts of the original cycle. 

A study of the stage-directions also substantiates the theory that the 
Prologue represents an early stage in the development of the cycle ; since 
those parts which correspond most closely with the Prologue employ simple 
Latin stage-directions ; whereas the later and more complicated portions of 
the cycle use English stage-directions as follows : 



Entirely Latin 



Fall of Lucifer 
Fall of Man 
Cain and Abel 
Noah's Flood 
Abraham and Isaac 
Moses and the Tables 
Prophets 



P ,. , H T f' i "^^^ Barrenness of Anna 

( Mary's Presentation in the Temple 

Latin \ Mary's Betrothal 

English and Latin | Salutation and Conception 

None I Joseph's Trouble about Mary 

English and Latin | The Visit to Elizabeth 



68 



ESTHER L. SWENSON 



Entirely Latin 



English and Latin 



The Trial of Joseph and Mary 
Joseph and the Midwives 
The Adoration of the Shepherds 
The Adoration of the Magi 

The Purification 



Entirely Latin 



The Slaughter of the Innocents, etc. 

Christ and the Doctors 

The Baptism of Christ 

The Temptation 

The Woman Taken in Adultery 

The Resurrection of Lazarus 



Entirely English 



Council of the Jews and Entry 

The Last Supper 

The Betrayal 

Herod and Christ before Caiaphas 



Prevailingly English 
(with the excep- 
tions noted) 



Actual Trial before Caiaphas 



Et clamabunt omnes 

Et percuciet super caput 

Et cantabit gallus 

Trial before Pilate and Herod | Et clamabunt 

Hie unus afferet aquam 



Pilate's Wife's Dream and 
Second Trial before Pilate 



Et clamabunt 
Et curret 

Et clamabunt omr 
Hie quasi semimortua, etc. 
Tunc transiet Maria ad Templum 
Harrowing of Hell 
Burial and Setting 



Crucifixion 



of the Watch 



Tunc ibunt ad sepulcrum Pilate, etc. 



Entirely Latin 
(with the one 
exception noted) 



Mary Magdalene 



Second Harrowing of Hell and Resurrection 
The Three Maries 

Maria Magdalen goth to the grave and 
wepyth and seyth 
Peregrini and Thomas 
Ascension 
Pentecost 

Assumption of the Virgin 
Doomsday 



The question of the method of presentation of these plays is still an 
unsolved problem. Mr. Davidson'^' is of the opinion that the Hegge plays, 
as he calls them, were not presented in separate pageants, but that the entire 
cycle was intended for presentation in three successive days or years. He 

''^Studies in English Mystery Plays, pp. 172-174. 



LUDUS COVENTRIAE CO 

also suggests that the same tree was used in the Cherry-tree episode and in 
the play of the Three KingsJ* Mr. Thompson'' divides the cycle, for pur- 
poses of presentation, into five groups, each of which, he believes, was acted 
on a separate vehicle. These five groups are as follows : 

1. The Old Testament group, comprising the first seven plays. 

2. The Barrenness of Anna to the Visit to Elizabeth. 

3. The Trial of Joseph and Mary to the Dispute of Christ and the 
Doctors. 

4. The Baptism to the Betrayal. 

5. The rest of the cycle, which he believes was acted during the second 
year, as stated by Contemplacio in his prologue to the Herod play. 

We have seen reasons in the appearance of the manuscript and in the fact 
that the play of Abraham and Isaac ends with an "Explicit" to believe that 
the first five plays, rather than the first seven, were regarded as a single unit. 
The sixth and seventh plays of Moses and the Prophets we have considered 
as belonging to the Nativity and not to the Old Testament group. 

Mr. Thompson's second group is identical with what we have termed the 
Virgin play. For the performance of this play the following properties and 
stations were necessary: A temple with an altar and something to repre- 
sent the fifteen steps that Mary ascended ; a space outside of the temple, for 
one of the directions specifies "recedant tribus extra templum" ; stations to 
represent the homes of Anna and Joachim, of Mary and Joseph, and of 
Elizabeth and Zacharias. Moreover, some device must have been contrived 
in order to represent heaven ; for we have, in addition to the dispute of the 
Four Daughters of God, the Council of the Trinity, and others which take 
place in heaven, repeated directions that angels shall descend from heaven 
and again ascend. We also have a choir in heaven. In the play of the Visit 
to Elizabeth we are told that Joseph and Mary walk "circa placeam" on their 
way to the house of Elizabeth. All this elaborate machinery could not have 
been carried about on a vehicle ; but, as has been suggested before, the whole 
play must have been presented on a fixed stage. 

In the discussion of the plays concerned with the Passion and Resurrec- 
tion, it was pointed out that there was a similar group of plays where the 
use of a stationary stage was even more clearly indicated than in the case 
of the Virgin play. This group began with the Council of the Jews and 
ended with the Burial and Setting of the Watch, thus comprising parts of 
Mr. Thompson's fourth and fifth groups. The plays which follow this group 
are much more simple in action and stage-directions, many of them being 
announced by "Incipits" and ended by "Explicits," so that it is not necessary 
to believe that they were acted on the same stage as the Passion play. 

74 Halliwell, pp. 145, 146, and 164. '^'> Mod. Lang. Notes, xxi. 



70 ESTHER L. SWENSON 

This Passion play may have been presented in two divisions or scenes, as 
indicated by Contemplacio ; but the properties in the two parts are sufficiently 
ahke to indicate that the same stage was used in the two parts. In the first 
part we have scaffolds for Annas and Caiaphas which they occupy when 
the play opens, and continue to retain until they take part in the action, when 
they descend into "the place." The first scene of the council is said to take 
place in the "myd-place," that is somewhere between Annis' and Caiaphas' 
stations. Then we are told that in the scene of the Entry, Christ rides out 
of "the place." This place must have been large and divided into two 
parts during such plays as the Last Supper, where the scene shifts from 
the Supper to the Council and we are told that one place or the other shall 
suddenly unclose. After Judas has made his arrangements with the Jews, 
the Council breaks up and the priests go again to their scaffolds. After this 
Christ walks from the part of "the place" where he has been keeping the 
Last Supper to Gethsemane. The part of "the place" that was previously 
used for the Council may here have been used for the garden. After the 
usual scene in the garden a direction states that Jesus goes into "the place" 
where the soldiers are who have come to capture him. This is probably 
the part that was previously used for the Last Supper. Then Jesus is led 
out of "the place" to Annas and Caiaphas. 

The second part of the play begins with a procession after which Annas, 
Caiaphas, Herod, and Pilate take their scaffolds. It seems that Herod's sta- 
tion was surrounded by a curtain, for after Jesus has appeared before 
Pilate the first time, we are told that "Herowdys scaffold xal unclose shewing 
Herowdes in astat, alle the Jewys knelyng, etc." In this part of the play 
there must have been a spot to represent Hell. Before Lucifer goes to 
Pilate's wife he speaks to the devils in hell. A station for Pilate's wife was 
also needed. The scene of the second trial before Pilate calls for a court 
room which was not the same as Pilate's scaffold, for we are told that he 
returns to his station after he has pronounced sentence. The action here 
takes place both within and without the court room. After this point Pilate 
and the high priests presumably remain on their scaffolds until they come 
down to put the inscription on the cross of Christ. Then they again 
return to their stations where Pilate receives Joseph's request for the body 
of Christ and the high priests' request for a watch. When the watch go to 
the tomb, Pilate, Annas, and Caiaphas accompany them, but return again to 
their scaffolds, where if the Passion play extends so far, they will receive the 
report of the watch. The scenes of the crucifixion and the burial naturally 
demand a station for the three crosses and one for the tomb ; certainly also 
the Temple to which Mary, the mother of Christ, retires. 

Granted, then, that the plays of the Life of the Virgin and the Passion 
were acted on fixed stages, the question still remains as to how the other 



LUDUS COVENTRIAE 71 

plays were presented. It is possible that the Old Testament plays (i. e., the 
first five of the cycle) were acted on one movable pageant, although the in- 
troduction of a movable ark in the Noah play renders this unlikely. The 
use of the word "pagent" in the Prologue together with the frequent "In- 
cipits" and "Explicits" that often mark off individual plays, would seem to 
me to indicate that our original cycle, represented by the Prologue, was 
acted on a series of pageants ; and that when the later modification took place 
some of the "Incipits" and "Explicits" were retained, whereas the greater 
part of them were omitted. 

If we grant that the play of the Assumption of the Virgin was acted in 
a church, it may be possible that parts of the cycle, as it now stands, were 
acted on a fixed stage, and other parts, on movable pageants. It is possible 
that the plays which precede the Virgin play were acted on movable vehicles, 
and then that the procession stopped and presented on a fixed stage the plays 
dealing with the life of the Virgin. After this the procession resumed its 
way through the streets, presenting the plays which intervene between the 
Virgin and the Passion plays. The scenes presenting the Passion were again 
played on another fixed stage, after which the players proceeded to the 
church where the Assumption, and possibly the Judgment, were given. 

Two circumstances, however, point to another interpretation, which I 
believe to be more plausible. In the play of Noah's Flood, after the Lamech 
episode, we are told that Noah enters with his ship.'® Again in the play of 
the Trial of Joseph and Mary this direction occurs, "Hie intrabit pagentum 
de purgatione Mariae et Joseph" (p. 132). These stage-directions seem to 
me to indicate that the audience was stationary and that such movable pag- 
eants, as were used in the performance, were rolled in before the audience. 
In any case, Ludus Coventriae bears evidence of a change from the tradi- 
tional Corpus Christi cycle acted on moveable pageants to a more elaborate 
play on a fixed stage. 

■76 Halliwell, p. 46. 



NOTE ON THE HOME OF LUDUS COVENTRIAE 

It has never been known where the cycle of mystery plays published by 
the Shakespeare Society in 1841 as "Ludus Coventriae: a Collection of 
Mysteries formerly represented at Coventry on the Feast of Corpus Christi," 
were acted, although it has long been known that they are not the Coventry 
plays. The editor of the cycle, J. O. Halliwell (-Phillips), follows a tradition 
to the effect that this cycle was formerly acted by the Grey Friars of Cov- 
entry. The first connection of the manuscript with Coventry is an entry on 
folio l*r, said by Halliwell to be in the handwriting of Dr. Richard James, 
librarian to Sir Robert Cotton to the following effect: "Contenta Novi 
Testamenti scenice expressa et actitata olim per monachos sive fratres men- 
dicantes ; vulgo dicitur hie liber Ludus Coventriae, sive Ludus Corporis 
Christi ; scribitur metris Anglicanis." The manuscript had formerly be- 
longed to Robert Hegge of Durham, a fellow of Corpus Christi College, 
Oxford ; he hqs written his name on it in several places. At his death in 
1630 the manuscript passed into the hands of Sir Robert Cotton. Halliwell 
states on the basis of a letter in the Cottonian collection^ that James was 
about that time engaged at Oxford in collecting manuscripts for Sir Robert 
Cotton. The only other descriptive entry on the manuscript is at the top of 
folio Ir: "The plaie called Corpus Christi." This is in a seventeenth- 
century hand, I should think, but not the hand of Robert Hegge, as stated 
by Mr. S. B. Hemingway,^ or that of James in the preceding entry. Sharp 
attributes the former entry to Dr. Smith, a later Cottonian librarian, who 
enters it in a catalogue of the Cottonian MSS. in 1696, as "A collection of 
plays, in old English meter : h. e. Dramata sacra, in quibus exhibentur his- 
toriae veteris et N. Testamenti, introductis quasi in scenam personis illic 
memoratis, quas secum invicem colloquentes pro ingenio finget Poeta. 
Videntur olim coram populo, sive ad instruendum sive ad placendum, a Frat- 
ribus mendicantibus representata." It should be noted with regard to the 
former entry that James does not say that the cycle is "Ludus Coventriae," 
but merely that "vulgo dicitur Ludus Coventriae." It is obvious that James 
had not read the plays, since he speaks of "Contenta novi testamenti," 
whereas there are Old as well as New Testament subjects treated. It may 
or may not be significant that Dr. Smith says nothing about Coventry, 

The connection of this cycle with Coventry was perpetuated by the fol- 
lowing passage from Dugdale's History of Warzvickshire, edition of 1656, 
page 116:^ "Before the suppression of the monasteries, this city [Coventry] 

1 The reference, as given by Halliwell, p. vii, is Cotton. Julius, C. iii, fol. 193. 

2 English Nativity Plays, p. xxix. 

3 Halliwell, pp. ix-x; Sharp, Dissertation, p. 5 ff. 

72 



LUDUS COVENTRIAE 73 

was very famous for the pageants that were played therein, upon Corpus- 
Christi day ; which occasioning very great confluence of people thither from 
far and near, was of no small benefit thereto ; which pageants being acted 
with mighty state and reverence by the friars of this house [the Gray Friars 
of Coventry], had theaters for the several scenes, very large and high, placed 
upon wheels, and drawn to all the eminent parts of the city, for the better 
advantage of spectators : and contained the story of the New-Testament, 
composed into old English Rithme, as appeareth by an ancient MS. (in bibl. 
Cotton, sub efiigie Vesp. D. 9 [8] ) intituled Ludus Corporis Christi, or Ludiis 
Coventriae.^ I have been told by some old people, who in their younger 
years were eye-witnesses of these pageants so acted, that the yearly con- 
flunce of people to see that shew was extraordinary great, and yielded no 
small advantage to this city." 

Thomas Sharp, writing in 1825, perceived that Ludus Coventriae "were 
no part of the Plays or Pageants exhibited by the Trading Companies of the 
City," but he did not reject Dugdale's tradition as to plays by the Grey 
Friars, and this he thought might be the cycle they had acted. In this 
opinion he is followed by Halliwell. Sharp cites an entry in the Coventry 
Annals, "solitary mention in one MS. (not older than the beginning of Chas. 
I.'s reign) of Henry Vllth's visit to the City in 1492, 'to see Plays acted by 
the Grey Friars.' " In this I think we may find the source of Dugdale's 
error. Dugdale was born in 1605, and the Coventry Corpus Christi plays 
were discontinued in 1580. He pretends to give only a somewhat general 
tradition as to the plays and the crowds that they attracted. This vague tra- 
dition is rendered definite for him by two things ; the first is the note on the 
MS. by James. James died in 1638, and Dugdale, according to Sharp, page 
6, was introduced to Sir Thomas Cotton and the Cottonian MSS. that year. 
Sir William Dugdale was working on his History of Warwickshire as early 
as 1642, and, according to the Dictionary of National Biography, was using 
Sir Thomas Cotton's library in 1652, and no doubt used it a great deal during 
the years he was at work on the book. The second document that misled him 
was the MSS. Annals. There are at least four of these books of annals still 
to be found in manuscript.^ Two, A. 26 and A. 43, are among the Corpora- 
tion manuscripts at Coventry ; neither is of very great age, and both contain 
pretty much the same materials : lists of mayors, notable or miraculous 
events, and a number of mentions of plays. There are also two at the British 
Museum, Harl. 6388 and 11346 Plut. CXLII. A.; the latter is of no great 
value as regards pageants. Harl. 6388 was written by Humphrey Wanley, 
and is dated Dec. 17, 1690. Wanley says : "This book was taken out of 

* In his MS., according to Halliwell, Dugdale says: "In that incomparable library belonging to 
Sir Thomas Cotton, there is yet one of the bookes which perteyned to this pageant, entitled 
Ludus Corporis Christi, or Ludus Coventriae." 

5 On this subject, see a fuller account in my edition of Two Coventry Corpus Christi Plays, 
E. E. T. S., p. xix ff. 



74 HARDIN CRAIG 

manuscripts, the one written by Mr. Cristofer Owen Mayor of this citty 
which contains the charter of Walter de Coventre concerning the commons 
etc. to Godfrey Leg- Mayor 1637, the other beginning at the 36 mayor of 
this citty and continued by several hands and lately by Edmund Palmer late 
of this citty . . .. and another written by Mr. Bedford and collected out 
of divers others and continued to Mr. Septimius Bott. And two other 
collected by Tho. Potter and continued to Mr. Robert Blake, and another 
written by Mr. Francis Barnett, to the first year of Mr. Jellififs Majoralty, 
and another written by Mr. Abraham Astley, and continued to Mr. Sept. 
Bott, and another written by Mr. Abraham Boune to Humfrey Wrightwick, 
1607." In Dugdale's Warwickshire there is also a list of mayors of Coventry 
with annals. Sharp quotes MS. Annals and Codex Hales, and there was at 
least one copy of Coventry annals in the Birmingham Free Reference Library 
at the time of the fire in 1879, so that Sharp may represent an original. 

The entrv with which we have to do is given as follows: "Corp. MSS. 
A. 26 and A. 43 : Thomas Churchman, bucklemaker. Mayor, 1492. This 
year the King and Queen came to Kenilworth; from thence they came to 
Coventry to see our plays at Corpus Christitide and gave them great com- 
mendation. Dugdale and 11346 Plut. CXLII. A: In his Mayoralty K. H. 
7. came to see the playes acted by the Grey Friars and much commended 
them. Harl. 6388: The King and Queen came to see the playes at the 
grey friers and much commended them." The entry as given in Dugdale 
gave rise to the impression in his mind, I think, as it certainly did in the 
mind of Thomas Sharp, that there were plays in Coventry acted by the 
brotherhood of the Grey Friars. James's note had suggested monks or men- 
dicant friars ; here was this entry in the Coventry annals which he prints. 
It is easy to see that we have to do with a misunderstanding. "Acted by 
the Grey Friars" need not mean that grey friars were the actors ; but may 
mean "at the Gray-friars church." The grey-friars was a common way of 
indicating the church. Wanley so understands the entry, for he says in 
Harl. 6388, "to see the playes at the greyfriers." He worked from a large 
number of manuscripts, and there is no doubt but that the entry means sim- 
ply that the King and Queen watched the Corpus Christi play as it was 
presented by the craft guilds in front of the Grey Friars church, where there 
would certainly have been a station ; just as Queen Margaret had seen them 
at a station in Earl Street in 1456. 

The only mention of a place of performance in the cycle itself is at the 
end of the general Prologue : 

A Sunday next, yf that we may. 

At vj. of the belle we ginne oure play, 

In N. towne, wherfore we pray, 

That God now be Youre Spede.* 

SHalHwell, p. 18. 



LUDUS COVENTRIAE 75 

This was understood by somebody, Sharp does not say whom,' to indi- 
cate a series of plays for exhibition at Corpus Christi festival generally, 
rather than expressly for Coventry, since N. (nomen) is the usual mode of 
distinguishing a person or place under such circumstances, "as N. stands in 
the marriage ceremony unto this day."^ Halliwell says, "If the opinion I 
have formed of their locality be correct, I can account for this by supposing 
that the prologues of the vexillators belong to another series of plays, or that 
these mysteries were occasionally performed at other places. ... it 
must be confessed that the conclusion would suit a company of strolling 
players much better than the venerable order of the Grey Friars."^ The idea 
that Ludus Coventriae is the play-book of a strolling company has been very 
generally entertained since that time. Ten Brink follows that idea and as- 
signs their dialect to the North-East Midlands ; so also Pollard.^* Ten 
Brink's conclusion as to dialect is in part confirmed by a study of the dialect 
by M. Kramer, Sprache und Heirnat des sogen. Ludus Coventriae, who, how- 
ever, thinks that the plays are of southern origin but rewritten in the North- 
East Midlands. Chambers does not consider the strolling company hypoth- 
esis as proved. He perceives that they are stationary plays in their present 
form, but does not take the trouble to ascertain that the manuscript is divided 
into separate plays, although the numbers are large and in red. Another mis- 
take he makes is that, although he sees that the Prologue must have been 
written for the plays, he thinks that it is later in date than they are. It repre- 
sents, as Miss Swenson's dissertation clearly shows, an earlier, purely cyclic 
stage of the same plays. Still Chambers does not rule out the idea that we 
have to do in the Hegge cycle with a series of craft-plays. He suggests Nor- 
wich and says that the elaborate treatment of the legends of the Virgin sug- 
gests a performance, like that of the Lincoln plays, and of the Massacre of 
the Innocents in the Digby MS., on St. Anne's day (July 26). 

I wish to make the last suggestion much more definitely, having arrived 
at considerable certainty with regard to it from other points of view. There 
are, I think, good reasons for fixing upon Lincoln as the home of these plays. 
The somewhat scanty records of the Lincoln plays seem to point to a Corpus 
Christi play which was transferred to St. Anne's day, and acted regularly as 
a St. Anne's play until near the middle of the sixteenth century. It was ap- 
parently an ordinary cyclic play with certain features appropriate to St. 
Anne's day. The so-called Coventry cycle, or to use the name of a former 
owner of the manuscript, the Hegge cycle, is unique in the possession of a 
group of plays dealing with the nativity and childhood of the Virgin Mary, a 

7 Sharp, p. 7. 

8 See also J. P. Collier, History of Dramatic Poetry, ii, p. 156. 
'J Loc. cit., p. xi. 

10 Ten Brink, English Literature, ii, p. 283; A. W. Pollard, English Miracle Plays, p. xxxvii. 
A. R. Hohlfeld, Die Kollektivmisterien, Anglia, xi, p. 228, suggests that the Grey Friars went on 
the road with their play. 



76 HARDIN CRAIG 

subject of unmistakable connection with St. Anne's day. The Corporation 
records show that each Lincoln alderman was required to furnish a silk 
gown for one of the "kings" in the procession of St. Anne. This has been 
supposed to refer to the Three Kings of Cologne in the Magi play ; but there 
were only three of the magi, and there must have been more than three alder- 
men. The Hegge prophet play calls for no less than thirteen kings, and is, 
moreover, unique among prophet plays. The prophets foretell the birth of 
Mary and not of Jesus. The play might be described as a dramatic form of 
the mediaeval theme of the "Root of Jesse." They had, as we shall see pres- 
ently, some special kind of prophet play known particularly as visus, or 
"sights," though the name was applied to the whole St. Anne's play too, and 
this Jesse, it is so called in the manuscript, with the accompanying Virgin 
plays would be most appropriate. 

The available information about the Lincoln plays is contained in the 
14th Report of the Historical Manuscripts Commission," and in an article 
entitled Some English Plays and Players by Mr. A. F. Leach in the Furni- 
vall Miscellany. Canon Wordsworth has also published a few bits of infor- 
mation in his Lincoln Statutes and his Notes on Mediaeval Services in Eng- 
land. One can not be sure whether or not the principal manuscripts have 
been read carefully for the purpose of getting all possible information about 
the plays, or whether a study of completer forms of the references already 
found might not yield a good deal more information than they do in their im- 
perfect versions. The Chapter Act Books and the Chapter Computi seem 
particularly promising. The Historical MSS. Report on the Manuscripts of 
the Dean and the Chapter of Lincoln^^ gives no information, and that which 
we have comes from Mr. Leach's article. 

We know of unusual dramatic activities on the part of vicars of the choir 
and clerks of the Cathedral in the thirteenth century from the hostile writ- 
ings of Bishop Grosseteste.^^ He denounces ludos and miracula together 
with the Feast of Fools. In 1390 the vicars and clerks are still liable to 
censure because they dressed like laymen, laughed, shouted, and acted plays, 
which they commonly and fitly called the Feast of Fools. ^* There was ap- 
parently much dramatic activity in the minster. Chapter Computi for 1406, 
1452, 1531, have entries of payments, "In serothecis emptis pro Maria et 
Angelo et Prophetis ex consuetudine in Aurora Natalis Dni hoc anno."^' 
There is one very puzzling entry given by Canon Wordsworth^*^ in these 
terms: "In 1420 tithes to the amount of ^s 8d were assigned to Thomas 



" Appendix, 8, op. 1-120. ^^ Hist. MSS., xii. App. 9, pp. 553 ff. 

18 Chambers, ii. p. 100 et passim; Luard, Letters of Robert Grosseteste, (Rolls Series), 74, 162, 
317. 

1* Chapter Act Book quoted by Leach, p. 222. 

15 These entries are given by Wordsworth, Notes on Mediaeval Services, p. 126, and Lincoln 
Statutes, ii, Iv. 

16 Wordsworth, p. 126. 



LUDUS COVENTRIAE 77 

Chamberleyn for getting up a spectacle or pageant ('cujusdam excellentis 
visits') called Rubum quern viderat at Christmas." This is possibly to be 
connected with the prophet play mentioned above, since Moses was in most 
versions of the processus the first prophet — hence the allusion to the burning 
bush — and with him possibly the play of the Tables of the Law. 

Further references point to an identification of the Corpus Christi play 
with the play acted on St. Anne's day. Leach gives entries from a list of 
mayors and bailiffs of the reign of Henry VIII with annals of the city. 
Amongst the entries are references to plays, two being to the Corpus Christi 
play, namely, in 12 of Edw. IV, 1471-2, and 14 of Edw. IV, 1473-4. One of 
the Chapter Act books, according to Leach, has a reference in 1469 to the 
Show or Play of St. Anne. And if we trace this St. Anne's play by means 
of the Corporation Minute Book covering the early fifteenth century,^'^ we 
find that it was probably the Corpus Christi play under a new name. There 
were no doubt extensive changes in the play to make it more appropriate to 
St. Anne's day; but it is evidently, to all intents and purposes, a Corpus 
Christi play transferred to another date, a thing familiar in the Chester and 
Norwich Whitsun plays. The following entries will indicate the circum- 
stances of the St. Anne's play so far as they can be determined from the 
materials at hand : 

1515, 27 July. It is agreed that whereas divers garments and other "heriorments" 
are yearly borrowed in the country for the arraying of the pageants of St. Anne's guild, 
but now the knights and gentlemen are afraid with the plague so that the "graceman" 
(chief officer of the Guild of St. Anne) cannot borrow such garments, every alder- 
man shall prepare and set forth in the said array two good gowns, and every sheriff 
and every chamberlain a gown, and the persons with them shall wear the same. And 
the constables are ordered to wait upon the array in procession, both to keep the 
people from the array, and also to take heed of such as wear garments in the same. 

1517, 10 June, 22 Sept. Sir Robert Denyas appointed St. Anne's priest .... 
having yearly 5/., he promising yearly to help to the bringing forth and preparing of 
the pageants in St. Anne's guild. 

1518, 16 June. Ordered that every alderman shall send forth a servant with a torch 
to be lighted in the procession with a rochet (1521, "an onest gowne") upon him about 
the Sacrament, under pain of forfeiture of 6s. Sd., and also under like penalty, send 
forth one person with a good gown upon his back to go in the procession. That every 
constable shall wait on the procession on St. Anne's day by 7 of the clock. ... In 
1525 the aldermen are each to provide a gown of silk for the kings. ... It is 
ordered that every occupation shall prepare and apparel in all preparation except plate 
and cups ("copes"). List of defaulters in 1526. In 1527 the parishioners of St. John 
Evang. in Wykford refuse to lend "honroments." 

1519, 18 June. Agreed that every man and woman in the city, being able, shall 
be brother and sister in St. Anne's guild, and pay yearly 4d., man and wife, at the least. 

Every occupation belonging to St. Anne's guild to bring forth their pageants suf- 
ficiently, upon pain of forfeting 10/. 

1521. 16 July. George Browne, alderman, elected in the place of the graceman 

17 Hist. MSS., xiv. App. 8, pp. 25 ff. 



78 HARDIN CRAIG 

of St. Anne's gild, complains that as the plague is reigning in the city he can not get 
such garments and "honourments" as should be in the pageants of the procession ; 
wherefore it is agreed to borrow a gown of my lady "Powes" for one of the Maries, and 
the other Mary to be arrayed in the crimson gown of velvet that belongeth to tha 
gild; and the prior of St. Katharine's to be spoken with to have such "honourments" 
as we have had aforetime. 

30 Oct. The foundation of a priest to sing in the church of St. Michael upon the 
hill . . . with a proviso that the said chaplain shall yearly be ready to help 
to the preparing and bringing forth of the procession of St. Anne's day, and after 
Mr. Dighton's decease to be called for ever St. Anne's priest. 

31 Dec. ( ?) Every alderman to make a gown for the kings in the pageant on 
St. Anne's day, and the Pater Noster play to be played this year. 

1539, 18 July. Agreed that St. Anne's gild shall go up on the Sunday next after 
St. Anne's day in manner and form as it hath been had in time past. 

12 Nov. The stuff belonging to St. Anne's gild to be laid in the chapel of the 
bridge, and the house in which it lieth to be let. 

1540, 2 June. Agreed that St. Anne's gild shall go forward as it hath done in times 
past ; that every alderman shall have a gown and a torch, and every sheriff to find 
a gown, and every occupation to bring forth their pageants according to the old cus- 
tom, and every occupation that hath their pageants broken to make them ready against 
that day, on pain of forfeiting 20.?. 

1542, 10 June. St. Anne's gild to be brought forth the Sunday after St. James' 
day (St. Anne's day in 1539 and 1547). 

On Nov. 14, 1545, the Great Gild made over its lands, tenements, and heredita- 
ments for the relief of the city and its plate on the 5th of February, 1546. On Nov. 
5, 1547, jewels, plate, and ornaments belonging to St. Anne's Gild are ordered sold for 
the use of the common chamber ; but that year, 13 June, the procession and sight upon 
the Sunday next after St. Anne's day shall be brought forth as hath been in times past, 
and every occupation shall pay to the same as hath been accustomed. 

1554, 6 July. Agreed at a Secret Council that St. Anne's gild with Corpus Christi 
play shall be brought forth and played this year, and that every craft shall bring forth 
their pageants as hath been accustomed, and all occupations to be contributories as 
shall be assessed. 

1555, 3 June. St. Anne's gild to be brought forth as hath been heretofore 
accustomed. 

To these entries add the following one summarized by Leach, page 224, "Again, on 
Nov. 12, 31 Henry VII, it was agreed by the Common Council that a large door should 
be made at the late schoolhouse that the pageants may be sent in, and rent was to 
be charged for warehousing of Ad. for each pageant, 'and Noy schippe \2d.' " 

There were, therefore, a Corpus Christi play and a procession on St. 
Anne's day, directed by the mayor and the graceman ; the guild priest 
helped in the preparation of the pageants; the host was carried in the 
procession; the content, so far as it can be determined, is normal; Noah, 
a play containing kings, an Ascension and an Assumption and Coro- 
nation of the Virgin.^* In 1555 the order is for "St. Anne's guild and Corpus 
Christi play." It is altogether probable that the entries in the annals for 
1471-2, 1473-4, refer to the same play. The Hegge cycle has the striking 
quality of possessing elaborate St. Anne's day characteristics and of having 

18 See below. 



LUDUS COVENTRIAE 79 

been at the same time, as it is stated in the Prologue, a Corpus Christi play. 
Both these plays and the Lincoln plays were apparently regularly acted on 
Sunday. 

The Lincoln plays seem to have been processional, and yet to have been 
acted, at least in part, upon a fixed stage. We have, on the one hand, the 
records of the procession, and, on the other, a record which proves that the 
Assumption of the Virgin was acted in the nave of the cathedral. We pos- 
sess, moreover, a list of stage properties which may reasonably be believed 
to have been employed in the Corpus Christi play, and were certainly the 
properties of a stationary stage. Leach, page 223, gives an entry in this 
form: "For example, in 1469, one of the Chapter Act Books (A. 2. 36, fol. 
Z2) has a reference to the Show or Play of St. Anne. The Chapter provided 
for the expenses of J. Hanson, chaplain, about the show (visum) of the As- 
sumption of the Virgin on St. Anne's day last past, given in the nave of the 
church, with a reward to him out of the money coming from the next open- 
ing of the high altar, i. e., of the collection box there." And again to quote 
the same authority, this time following more closely a passage in one of the 
"act-books or minute-books of the Chapter A. 31, f. 18:" "On Saturday, the 
Chapter Day, June, 1483, in the high choir of the Cathedral Church of the 
Blessed Mary of Lincoln, after compline. Sir Dean with his brethren, the 
Precentor, Chancellor, Treasurer, and Alford standing according to custom 
before the west door of the choir, and discussing the procession 
of St. Anne to be made by the citizens of Lincoln on St. Anne's day next, 
determined that they would have the play or speech ( sermonium)'^^ of the 
Assumption or Coronation of the Blessed Mary repaired and got ready, and 
played and shown in the procession aforesaid, as usual in the nave of the said 
church. The question being raised at whose expense this was to be done : 
they said at the expense of those who were willing to contribute and give 
anything ito it, and the rest to be met by the common fund and the fabric 
fund in equal shares, and Sir Treasurer and T. Alford were made surveyors 
of the work." 

This state of things is exactly reflected in the Hegge cycle. The Pro- 
logue of the cycle is divided into pageants and the word is freely used in the 
Prologue. "Pageant" frequently meant the vehicle on which plays were 
acted and was usually associated with that idea. This Prologue contemplates 
a regular processional play; but what do we find? We find that the mass 
of the plays were acted on a fixed stage ; so far as we find indications at all. 
Those which are unmodified and agree with the Prologue may possibly at 
any time, however late, have been acted on pageants. In two plays pageants 
were actually employed, namely, in the Noah play, where Noah goes out and 

19 The proper reading is no doubt "seremonium" for "ceremonium"; see Chambers, ii. p. 379. 



80 HARDIN CRAIG 

brings in the ark, and then when the play is over, withdraws with it ; and in 
the Trial of Joseph and Mary where the play begins with the stage-direction : 
"Hie intrabit pagentum de purgatione Mariae et Joseph."^" Pageants may 
have been used in many other parts of the cycle for all you can tell from the 
manuscript. The cycle is, moreover, divided in the manuscript into separate 
plays, even when there is no break in the action. Now, why should this 
have been done? It seems to me that it was done to preserve the identity 
of these different plays, although they were no longer separate pageants ; 
and that would have been necessary in order to preserve the responsibility 
of the different trading companies. This responsibility was preserved at 
Lincoln and thus fulfills the special conditions of the manuscript. The 
manuscript of the Hegge plays (Brit. Mus. Cotton MS. Vesp. D. viii.) 
shows the play of the Assumption of the Virgin written in a different hand 
from the rest of the manuscript, but evidently of about the same date as the 
other plays; it was incorporated in the manuscript at the time that it was 
made up. It is numbered and rubricated and even corrected in the hand of 
the scribe. ^^ It was evidently a separate play-book ; another case of that is 
certainly the Passion play in two parts, the first pages of which look as if 
they had been exposed as outside covers. We evidently have to do with an 
"original" which has been made up of old and new parts. It is probably 
an official document analogous to the Corporation Register at York. 

There is preserved at the back of a Lincoln Corporation minute-book^- 
the following entry of stage properties: 1564, July. — "A note of the perti 
. , . the properties of the staige . . . played in the moneth of July 
anno sexto regni. reginae Elizabethae, etc.. in the tyme of the mayoralty of 
Richard Carter, whiche play was then plaved in Brodgaite in the seid citye, 
and it was of the storye of Tobias in the Old Testament. First, hell mouth 
with a neither chap ; item, a prison with a coveryng; item, Sara ('s) chambre : 
lying at Mr. Norton's house in the tenure of William Smart. Item a greate 
idoll with a clubb ; item, a tombe with a coveryng ; item, the citie of Jerusa- 
lem with towers and pynacles ; item, the citie of Raiges with towers and 
pynacles ; item, the citie of Nynyve ; item, the King's palace of Nynyve ; 
item, olde Tobyes house ; item, the Tsralytes house and the neighbures house ; 
item, the Kyngs palace at Laches ; remanyng in Saynt Swythunes churche. 
Item, a fyrmament with a fierye clowde and a duble clowde. in the custodye 
of Thomas Fulbeck. alderman." It has been suggested that some of these 
properties, if not all, are those of the defunct Corpus Christi plav : but be 
that as it may, it is evident that a number of these properties could have 
been employed in presenting plays in the Hegge cycle. "Hell mouth with a 

zoHalliwell, pp. 46, 48, 132. 

21 See Aiheneum, Aug. 16, 1913, and Mr. W. W. Grey's letter in same periodical Sept. 13, 1913. 

"i^Hist. MSS., xiv. App. 8, w. 57-8. 



LUDUS COVENTRIAE 



81 



neither chap," "Jerusalem with towers and pynacles," a "tombe with a cover- 
yng," and a "fyrmament with a fierye clowde and a duble clowde," could have 
been used in presenting the play of the Assumption of the Virgin. In the 
case of the first three it is not a matter of much significance ; but with regard 
to the last-mentioned strange piece of mechanism it is certainly most sig- 
nificant to find evidence of its use. Before the death of the Virgin Mary she 
desires to see the Apostles, who are abroad in distant lands ; suddenly St. 
John appears and says : 

In Pheso I was prechyng a fer centre ryth, 

And by a whyte clowde I was rapt to these hyllys. 

Later all the Apostles suddenly appear ; only Peter and Paul speak ; Peter 
says: 

In dyveris contreys we prechid of youre sone and his blis, 
In dyveris clowdys eche of us was suddenly curyng ; 
And in on were brouth before youre yate here i-wys 
The cause why no man cowde telle of oure comyng. 

One further slight point of some value is that the Hegge play of the As- 
sumption of the Virgin makes use of a choir and an organ, as if it were acted 
in a church. 

The suggestion that the plays belonged to Lincoln has been made before, 
and there are apparent agreements in the matter of dialect and content with 
what we should expect to find there. The hypothesis explains at a glance 
many of the perplexities and problems which have involved the cycle. In 
fact it would be so rare to find in any other place such a set of conditions as 
those of Lincoln that the identification must gain in credibility the more it is 
considered. Lincoln was a great ecclesiastical center, and at that place we 
have a close and intimate connection between the cathedral clergy and the 
town plays, a set of circumstances which exactly accounts for the remarkable 
homiletic and apochryphal interest of the Hegge cycle. 



In her recent paper, entitled "The Problem of the Ludus Coventriae,"-^ 
Miss M. H. Dodds has also reached the same general conclusion as Miss 
Swenson's study; namely, that the Prologue represents an earlier cycle 
which was the foundation of the present Ludus Coventriae; but disagrees 
widely with Miss Swenson's paper when she concludes that we have in 
Ludus Coventriae a composite made up of five cycles from five different 
places. Miss Swenson's conclusion is that we have to do with one cycle 
and the changes it has undergone in one place. 

23 Modern Language Review, vol. ix., pp. 79 ff. 



82 HARDIN CRAIG 

Arguing from the last stanza of the general Prologue, she makes two 
statements with regard to the original N. Town plays: (1) That the 
plays must have been accurately described by the Prologue; (2) that they 
must have been founded upon stories from the Bible. With the first of 
these propositions I agree perfectly, and, in general, I agree that the 
earlier plays were simple and scriptural in their nature; but I find many 
disagreements with her application of the principles stated. 

In the first place. Miss Dodds' study of the relations between Prologue 
and plays has taken no account of meters, nor of minor differences in 
incident, and an insufficient account of stage-directions. This leads her 
to conclude that the play dealing with the girlhood of the Virgin and the 
Easter play have been incorporated as wholes and not simply combined 
with old plays on the same subjects, and she makes no attempt to dis- 
criminate between old and new elements in these plays. She says that the 
first seven plays, including the Prophets, belong to the original cycle, but 
she fails to note the emphasis upon the Virgin both in the Prologue and 
the play of the Prophets and consequently concludes that all the plays 
treating the subject of the girlhood of the Virgin (Barrenness of Anna to 
the Visit to Elizabeth), as well as the stanzas in the Prologue which corres- 
pond to them, have been incorporated about 1468 by some compiler who 
was eager to glorify the Virgin. 

The theory that the Prologue has been left intact except in the case of 
the quatrains numbered fourteen and fifteen, as noted by Miss Swenson 
above, and that the Girlhood plays are made up of old and new elements 
can not, I think, be refuted simply by the statement in the Prologue that 

Of holy wryth this game xal bene 

And of no fablys be no way. 
The people of England in 1468 did not draw a very sharp distinction 
between those stories which were definitely in the Bible and those generally 
accepted as "gospel truth" by the Church at large. Such stories as the 
Betrothal of Mary might be included and accepted as very truth and "no 
fablys." Miss Dodds also fails to notice the strange mixture of elements 
in the Easter cycle ; although in this case she concludes somewhat incon- 
sistently that the Prologue has been allowed to stand as it was. The play 
thus incorporated, or, as I think, the play thus rewritten, she would end 
with the Three Maries. It seemed to Miss Swenson more probable, from a 
study of meter, stage-directions, and minute differences in incident, and 
also because the prologue spoken by Contemplacio promises only a Passion 
play (not a Resurrection play) that the influence ends with the scene of 
the Burial. 

There is, I think, no reason for considering the plays from the Adoration 



LUDUS COVENTRIAE 83 

of the Shepherds to the Death of Herod as a separate cycle, as Miss Dodds 
does. They are not self-consistent in style or independent of the rest of 
the cycle in style or meter, but seem to be a normal Nativity group. The 
Purification is evidently from a different source altogether. It is not 
mentioned in the Prologue and is in a meter rarely used in the cycle ; but 
otherwise the Nativity group has seemed to me to belong with the rest of 
the cycle. And so I should not agree that any of Miss Dodds' five groups 
are independent of the cycle or imported from the outside. 

There are other significant omissions in Miss Dodds' paper; such as 
her failure to make note of such excrescences as the Lamech episode, the 
Cherry-tree episode, and in general the passages written in tumbling 
meter; also the way in which stage-directions are employed and plays 
introduced and concluded and many points of disagreement between Pro- 
logue and cycle; but these will be sufficiently plain by a comparison of 
her paper with the preceding one by Miss Swenson. 






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